Environmental Enrichment Effects on the Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Expression in Healthy Condition, Alzheimer’s Disease, and Other Neurodegenerative Disorders
Affiliations: [a] IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy
| [b] Department of Psychology, University Sapienza of Rome, Rome, Italy
| [c] Department of Human Sciences, Guglielmo Marconi University, Rome, Italy
Correspondence:
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Correspondence to: Francesca Gelfo, PhD, Associate Professor, Guglielmo Marconi University, Department of Human Sciences, IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Laboratory of Experimental and Behavioral Neurophysiology, Via del Fosso di Fiorano 64, Rome 00143, Italy. Tel.: +39 0650170 3149; Fax: +39 0650170 3324; E-mail: f.gelfo@hsantalucia.it.
Note: [1] Behavioral Neuroscience Ph.D. Program.
Abstract: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a protein belonging to the neurotrophin family, is known to be heavily involved in synaptic plasticity processes that support brain development, post-lesion regeneration, and cognitive performances, such as learning and memory. Evidence indicates that BDNF expression can be epigenetically regulated by environmental stimuli and thus can mediate the experience-dependent brain plasticity. Environmental enrichment (EE), an experimental paradigm based on the exposure to complex stimulations, constitutes an efficient means to investigate the effects of high-level experience on behavior, cognitive processes, and neurobiological correlates, as the BDNF expression. In fact, BDNF exerts a key role in mediating and promoting EE-induced plastic changes and functional improvements in healthy and pathological conditions. This review is specifically aimed at providing an updated framework of the available evidence on the EE effects on brain and serum BDNF levels, by taking into account both changes in protein expression and regulation of gene expression. A further purpose of the present review is analyzing the potential of BDNF regulation in coping with neurodegenerative processes characterizing Alzheimer’s disease (AD), given BDNF expression alterations are described in AD patients. Moreover, attention is also paid to EE effects on BDNF expression in other neurodegenerative disease. To investigate such a topic, evidence provided by experimental studies is considered. A deeper understanding of environmental ability in modulating BDNF expression in the brain may be fundamental in designing more tuned and effective applications of complex environmental stimulations as managing approaches to AD.
