Changes in markers of neuronal and glial plasticity after cortical injury induced by food restriction

Caloric Restriction Suppresses Microglial Activation and Prevents Neuroapoptosis Following Cortical Injury in Rats

“…These results, together with our previous report [16] strongly suggest that prophylactic CR, as a part of a preventive life style could lead to better outcomes following brain injury.…”

“…The AL group had unlimited access to food during the entire experiment. Animals from the CR group were fed 50% of the average daily food intake of the AL group, as previously described [16]. Animals were on CR for 3 months prior to surgery.…”

“…Prior to surgery, the animals were anesthetized with an intraperitoneal injection of Nembutal (Serva) in the dose of 50 mg/kg body weight. A cortical stab injury to the left somatosensory cortex was performed as previously described [16]. After surgery, the animals were kept in isolation for 3 h until completely recovered from anesthesia, and were subsequently returned to their home cages in order to avoid social isolation stress (n = 3 per cage).…”

“…Previous work in our laboratory has demonstrated that exposing animals to CR significantly reduced astrogliosis and modulated neuronal plasticity in response to cortical stab injury [16]. Given that processes of recovery and remodeling are directly dependent on the extent of secondary injury, the goal of this study was to further examine whether 3-month long CR applied prior to CSI could alleviate the severity of secondary injury.…”

Complex assessment of distinct cognitive impairments following ouabain injection into the rat dorsoloateral striatum

“…We used pieces of cookies, which turned out to be tempting enough to motivate animals to solve the T-maze task, despite ad libidum feeding. It has been shown that a food restriction schedule (50% food pellets consumed in ad libidum feeding) that reduced body weight to 80% of that of rats with unlimited access to food, revealed about a one-fold increase in blood corticosteroid levels [34]. Such chronic stress may induce emotional changes that influence the performance of other cognitive tasks, such as the object exploration test, which is based on novelty preference and requires an interest in exploration, as well as not too much arousal.…”