Abstract
General anesthetics given to immature rodents cause delayed neurobehavioral abnormalities via incompletely understood mechanisms. DNA methylation, one of the epigenetic modifications, is essential for the modulation of hippocampal synaptic plasticity through regulating the related genes. Therefore, we investigated whether abnormalities in the hippocampal DNA methylation of synaptic plasticity-related genes are involved in neonatal sevoflurane exposure-induced cognitive impairments in rats. Male Sprague–Dawley rats were exposed to 3 % sevoflurane or 30 % oxygen/air for 2 h daily from postnatal day 7 (P7) to P9 and were treated with DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) inhibitor 5-aza-2-deoxycytidine (5-AZA) or vehicle 1 h before the first sevoflurane exposure on P7. The rats were euthanized 1, 6, 24 h, and 30 days after the last sevoflurane exposure, and the brain tissues were harvested for biochemical analysis. Cognitive functions were evaluated by the open field, fear conditioning, and Morris water maze (MWM) tests on P39, P41–43, and P50–57, respectively. In the present study, repeated neonatal sevoflurane exposure resulted in hippocampus-dependent cognitive impairments as assessed by fear conditioning and MWM tests. The cognitive impairments were associated with the increased DNMTs and hypermethylation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and Reelin genes, and subsequent down-regulation of BDNF and Reelin genes, which finally led to the decrease of dendritic spines in the hippocampal pyramidal neurons in adolescent rats. Notably, pretreatment with 5-AZA reversed these sevoflurane-induced abnormalities. In conclusion, our results suggest that hypermethylation of hippocampal BDNF and Reelin is involved in neonatal sevoflurane exposure-induced cognitive impairments.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aid T, Kazantseva A, Piirsoo M, Palm K, Timmusk T (2007) Mouse and rat BDNF gene structure and expression revisited. J Neurosci Res 85:525–535
Alelú-Paz R, González-Corpas A, Ashour N, Escanilla A, Monje A, Guerrero Márquez C, Baxter MG (2015) DNA methylation pattern of gene promoters of major neurotransmitter systems in older patients with schizophrenia with severe and mild cognitive impairment. Int J Geriatric Psychiatr. doi:10.1002/gps.4182
Algora Amrock LG, Starner ML, Murphy KL, Baxter MG (2015) Long-term effects of single or multiple neonatal sevoflurane exposures on rat hippocampal ultrastructure. Anesthesiology 122:87–95
Anier K, Malinovskaja K, Pruus K, Aonurm-Helm A, Zharkovsky A, Kalda A (2014) Maternal separation is associated with DNA methylation and behavioural changes in adult rats. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol 24(3):459–468
Baudin A, Blot K, Verney C, Estevez L, Santamaria J, Gressens P, Giros B, Otani S, Daugé V, Naudon L (2012) Maternal deprivation induces deficits in temporal memory and cognitive flexibility and exaggerates synaptic plasticity in the rat medial prefrontal cortex. Neurobiol Learn Mem 98(3):207–214
Beers SR, Rofey DL, McIntyre KA (2014) Neurodevelopmental assessment after anaesthesia in childhood: review of the literature and recommendations. Anesth Analg 119:661–669
Bellinger DC (2008) Very low lead exposures and children’s neurodevelopment. Curr Opin Pediatr 20:172–177
Cao W, Pavlinec C, Gravenstein N, Seubert CN, Martynyuk AE (2012) Roles of aldosterone and oxytocin in abnormalities caused by sevoflurane anesthesia in neonatal rats. Anesthesiology 117:791–800
Cattano D, Young C, Straiko MM, Olney JW (2008) Subanesthetic doses of propofol induce neuroapoptosis in the infant mouse brain. Anesth Analg 106:1712–1714
Chahrour M, Jung SY, Shaw C, Zhou X, Wong ST, Qin J, Zoghbi HY (2008) MeCP2, a key contributor to neurological disease, activates and represses transcription. Science 320:1224–1229
Chiu S, Woodbury-Fariña MA, Shad MU, Husni M, Copen J, Bureau Y, Cernovsky Z, Hou JJ, Raheb H, Terpstra K, Sanchez V, Hategan A, Kaushal M, Campbell R (2014) The role of nutrient-based epigenetic changes in buffering against stress, aging and Alzheimer’s disease. Psychiatr Clin N Am 37:591–623
Dekker AD, De Deyn PP, Rots MG (2014) Epigenetics: the neglected key to minimize learning and memory deficits in Down syndrome. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 45:72–84
Feng J, Chang H, Li E, Fan G (2005) Dynamic expression of de novo DNA methyltransferases Dnmt3a and Dnmt3b in the central nervous system. J Neurosci Res 79:734–746
Flick RP, Katusic SK, Colligan RC, Wilder RT, Voigt RG, Olson MD, Sprung J, Weaver AL, Schroeder DR, Warner DO (2011) Cognitive and behavioral outcomes after early exposure to anesthesia and surgery. Pediatrics 128:1053–1061
Gibb R, Kolb B (1998) A method for vibratome sectioning of Golgi-Cox stained whole rat brain. J Neurosci Methods 79:1–4
Goll MG, Bestor TH (2005) Eukaryotic cytosine methyltransferases. Annu Rev Biochem 74:481–514
Graff J, Koshibu K, Jouvenceau A, Dutar P, Mansuy IM (2010) Protein phosphatase 1-dependent transcriptional programs for long-term memory and plasticity. Learn Mem 17:355–363
Grayson DR, Guidotti A (2013) The dynamics of DNA methylation in schizophrenia and related psychiatric disorders. Neuropsychopharmacology 38(1):138–166
Huang J, Jing S, Chen X, Bao X, Du Z, Li H, Yang T, Fan X (2015) Propofol administration during early postnatal life suppresses hippocampal neurogenesis. Mol Neurobiol. doi:10.1007/s12035-014-9052-7
Jevtovic-Todorovic V, Hartman RE, Izumi Y, Benshoff ND, Dikranian K, Zorumski CF, Olney JW, Wozniak DF (2003) Early exposure to common anesthetic agents causes widespread neurodegeneration in the developing rat brain and persistent learning deficits. J Neurosci 23:867–882
Ji MH, Qiu LL, Yang JJ, Zhang H, Sun XR, Zhu SH, Li WY, Yang JJ (2014) Pre-administration of curcumin prevents neonatal sevoflurane exposure-induced neurobehavioral abnormalities in mice. Neurotoxicology pii: S0161-813X (14) 00186-7
Jones PL, Veenstra GJ, Wade PA, Vermaak D, Kass SU, Landsberger N, Strouboulis J, Wolffe AP (1998) Methylated DNA and MeCP2 recruit histone deacetylase to repress transcription. Nat Genet 19:187–191
Kodama M, Satoh Y, Otsubo Y, Araki Y, Yonamine R, Masui K, Kazama T (2011) Neonatal desflurane exposure induces more robust neuroapoptosis than do isoflurane and sevoflurane and impairs working memory. Anesthesiology 115:979–981
Kupferman JV, Basu J, Russo MJ, Guevarra J, Cheung SK, Siegelbaum SA (2014) Reelin signaling specifies the molecular identity of the pyramidal neuron distal dendritic compartment. Cell 158:1335–1347
Leal G, Comprido D, Duarte CB (2014) BDNF-induced local protein synthesis and synaptic plasticity. Neuropharmacology 76:639–656
Lehmann J, Pryce CR, Jongen-Rêlo AL, Stöhr T, Pothuizen HH, Feldon J (2002) Comparison of maternal separation and early handling in terms of their neurobehavioral effects in aged rats. Neurobiol Aging 23(3):457–466
Lerman J, Sikich N, Kleinman S, Yentis S (1994) The pharmacology of sevoflurane in infants and children. Anesthesiology 80:814–824
Li Y, Xiao D, Yang S, Zhang L (2013a) Promoter methylation represses AT2R gene and increases brain hypoxic-ischemic injury in neonatal rats. Neurobiol Dis 60:32–38
Li M, Xue X, Shao S, Shao F, Wang W (2013b) Cognitive, emotional and neurochemical effects of repeated maternal separation in adolescent rats. Brain Res 1518:82–90
Lohmann C, Kessels HW (2014) The developmental stages of synaptic plasticity. J Physiol 592(Pt 1):13–31
Lu LX, Yon JH, Carter LB, Jevtovic-Todorovic V (2006) General Anesthesia activates BDNF-dependent neuroapoptosis in the developing rat brain. Apoptosis 11:1603–1615
Miller G (2010) A role for epigenetics in cognition. Science 329:27
Miller and Sweatt (2007) Covalent modification of DNA regulates memory formation. Neuron 53(6):857–869
Murphy KL, Baxter MG (2013) Long-term effects of neonatal single or multiple isoflurane exposures on spatial memory in rats. Front Neurol 4:87
Nan X, Ng HH, Johnson CA, Laherty CD, Turner BM, Eisenman RN, Bird A (1998) Transcriptional repression by the methyl-CpG-binding protein MeCP2 involves a histone deacetylase complex. Nature 393:386–389
Pol Bodetto S, Carouge D, Fonteneau M, Dietrich JB, Zwiller J, Anglard P (2013) Cocaine represses protein phosphatase-1Cβ through DNA methylation and Methyl-CpG Binding Protein-2 recruitment in adult rat brain. Neuropharmacology 73:31–40
Reik W (2007) Stability and flexibility of epigenetic gene regulation in mammalian development. Nature 447:425–432
Schmittgen TD, Livak KJ (2008) Analyzing real-time PCR data by the comparative C(T) method. Nat Protoc 3:1101–1108
Stranahan AM, Erion JR, Wosiski-Kuhn M (2013) Reelin signaling in development, maintenance, and plasticity of neural networks. Ageing Res Rev 12(3):815–822
Subbanna S, Basavarajappa BS (2014) Pre-administration of G9a/GLP inhibitor during synaptogenesis prevents postnatal ethanol-induced LTP deficits and neurobehavioral abnormalities in adult mice. Exp Neurol 261:34–43
Subbanna S, Nagre NN, Shivakumar M, Umapathy NS, Psychoyos D, Basavarajappa BS (2014) Ethanol induced acetylation of histone at G9a exon1 and G9a-mediated histone H3 dimethylation leads to neurodegeneration in neonatal mice. Neuroscience 258:422–432
Suri D, Veenit V, Sarkar A, Thiagarajan D, Kumar A, Nestler EJ, Galande S, Vaidya VA (2013) Early stress evokes age-dependent biphasic changes in hippocampal neurogenesis, BDNF expression, and cognition. Biol Psychiatry 73(7):658–666
Tan S, Xu C, Zhu W, Willis J, Seubert CN, Gravenstein N, Sumners C, Martynyuk AE (2014) Endocrine and neurobehavioral abnormalities induced by propofol administered to neonatal rats. Anesthesiology 121:1010–1017
Vukojevic V, Kolassa IT, Fastenrath M, Gschwind L, Spalek K, Milnik A, Heck A, Vogler C, Wilker S, Demougin P, Peter F, Atucha E, Stetak A, Roozendaal B, Elbert T, Papassotiropoulos A, de Quervain DJ (2014) Epigenetic modification of the glucocorticoid receptor gene is linked to traumatic memory and post-traumatic stress disorder risk in genocide survivors. J Neurosci 34:10274–10284
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 81271216 and 81300946).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflicts of Interest
The authors have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ju, Ls., Jia, M., Sun, J. et al. Hypermethylation of Hippocampal Synaptic Plasticity-Related genes is Involved in Neonatal Sevoflurane Exposure-Induced Cognitive Impairments in Rats. Neurotox Res 29, 243–255 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12640-015-9585-1
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12640-015-9585-1