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01-02-2015 | Short Communication

Experimentally-induced maternal hypothyroidism alters crucial enzyme activities in the frontal cortex and hippocampus of the offspring rat

Authors: Christos Koromilas, Stylianos Tsakiris, Konstantinos Kalafatakis, Apostolos Zarros, Vasileios Stolakis, Despoina Kimpizi, Alexios Bimpis, Anastasia Tsagianni, Charis Liapi

Published in: Metabolic Brain Disease | Issue 1/2015

Abstract

Thyroid hormone insufficiency during neurodevelopment can result into significant structural and functional changes within the developing central nervous system (CNS), and is associated with the establishment of serious cognitive impairment and neuropsychiatric symptomatology. The aim of the present study was to shed more light on the effects of gestational and/or lactational maternal exposure to propylthiouracil (PTU)-induced hypothyroidism as a multilevel experimental approach to the study of hypothyroidism-induced changes on crucial brain enzyme activities of 21-day-old Wistar rat offspring in a brain region-specific manner. This experimental approach has been recently developed and characterized by the authors based on neurochemical analyses performed on newborn and 21-day-old rat offspring whole brain homogenates; as a continuum to this effort, the current study focused on two CNS regions of major significance for cognitive development: the frontal cortex and the hippocampus. Maternal exposure to PTU in the drinking water during gestation and/or lactation resulted into changes in the activities of acetylcholinesterase and two important adenosinetriphosphatases (Na⁺,K⁺- and Mg²⁺-ATPase), that seemed to take place in a CNS-region-specific manner and that were dependent upon the PTU-exposure timeframe followed. As these findings are analyzed and compared to the available literature, they: (i) highlight the variability involved in the changes of the aforementioned enzymatic parameters in the studied CNS regions (attributed to both the different neuroanatomical composition and the thyroid-hormone-dependent neurodevelopmental growth/differentiation patterns of the latter), (ii) reveal important information with regards to the neurochemical mechanisms that could be involved in the way clinical hypothyroidism could affect optimal neurodevelopment and, ultimately, cognitive function, as well as (iii) underline the need for the adoption of more consistent approaches towards the experimental simulation of congenital and early-age-occurring hypothyroidism.

Insufficiency of thyroid hormones (THs) during neurodevelopment could be a result of congenital hypothyroidism or maternal hypothyroidism due to iodine-deficiency, autoimmune thyroiditis, previous thyroidectomy, drug treatments/abuse, TH-disrupting xenobiotics, etc.

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Title: Experimentally-induced maternal hypothyroidism alters crucial enzyme activities in the frontal cortex and hippocampus of the offspring rat
Authors: Christos Koromilas
Stylianos Tsakiris
Konstantinos Kalafatakis
Apostolos Zarros
Vasileios Stolakis
Despoina Kimpizi
Alexios Bimpis
Anastasia Tsagianni
Charis Liapi
Publication date: 01-02-2015
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: Metabolic Brain Disease / Issue 1/2015
Print ISSN: 0885-7490
Electronic ISSN: 1573-7365
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11011-014-9581-9

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Experimentally-induced maternal hypothyroidism alters crucial enzyme activities in the frontal cortex and hippocampus of the offspring rat

Abstract

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Abstract

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