Effects of differential early-life environment on glucocorticoid receptor and brain-derived neutrophic factor expression in male adolescent rat brains

• Main Author: Chia, Clarissa Si Ying
• Other Authors: Rupshi Mitra
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: DRNTU::Science::Biological sciences::Human anatomy and physiology::Neurobiology; DRNTU::Science::Biological sciences::Molecular biology
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/64054
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Research has revealed that post-natal life encompasses the critical periods in which a developing brain exhibits a high level of plasticity. The environment which an individual is exposed to when young can affect the developing amygdala and hippocampus, and shape how one responses to stress during adulthood. While studies conducted in neuroscience and neural development mainly focused on early neonatal stages of maturation and their impacts on adulthood; research on adolescence has only been investigated recently. As behaviours are often linked with the expression level of proteins involved, the current study aims to explore the effects of early-life environment on the expression of BDNF and GR in the BLA and hippocampus in adolescent rats. Differential early-life environment paradigms such as maternal separation, limited nesting and environmental enrichment were employed during the post-natal period of male rat pups and the brain tissues were harvested when the pups reached adolescence. Western blot was carried out to detect the proteins. The results obtained were found not to be significant, with the BDNF and GR expression level in the BLA and hippocampus opposed to those reported in previous literature. Thus, further experiments need to be performed to re-evaluate current results.