Publication Date
2012
Document Type
Thesis
Committee Members
Dragana Claflin (Advisor), Dragana Claflin (Committee Member), Timothy Cope (Other), Michael Hennessy (Committee Member), Andrew Hsu (Other), Larry Ream (Committee Member)
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Abstract
Exogenous glucocorticoids are commonly used in modern medications and animal studies examining the effects of glucocorticoids on the developing brain report inconsistent results. Recent reports have questioned the reliability of available drug delivery methods in mice (Herrmann et al., 2009). In our laboratory, variable behavioral results using trace eyeblink conditioning (EBC) suggest that we may be having similar problems delivering glucoroticoids to developing rat pups (Claflin et al., 2005, 2011). Subcutaneous pellets and osmotic minipumps resulted in impaired learning during trace eyeblink conditioning whereas subcutaneous injection of corticosterone (CORT) resulted in facilitation of learning on the same task. One of the possible mechanisms for CORT-induced cognitive effects may be changes to hippocampal development, specifically neurogenesis. We examined potential differences in hippocampal neurogenesis for rats subjected to elevated CORT levels as in the aforementioned behavioral studies. For the present report, exogenous administration of CORT was achieved using subcutaneous pellets. CORT- treated males showed significantly less neurogenesis than the CORT treated females. Furthermore, males of the control group showed significantly more neurogenesis than the females.
Page Count
52
Department or Program
Department of Neuroscience, Cell Biology & Physiology
Year Degree Awarded
2012
Copyright
Copyright 2012, all rights reserved. This open access ETD is published by Wright State University and OhioLINK.
