Constantinescu (2015) Short-term with enriched nutrition for postoperative cognitive dysfunction. Master's Thesis / Essay, Behavioural and Cognitive Neurosciences.
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Abstract
Abstract The decline in cognitive performance after surgery, postoperative cognitive dysfunction or POCD, is mainly seen in older persons. A key factor in the development of POCD is thought to be the inflammatory response to surgery. The cholinergic anti-inflammatory reflex to nutritional stimuli is a reflex mechanism by which the body modulates its response to (mild) inflammatory stimuli. We hypothesize that administering food enriched in fats and proteins shortly before surgery will dampen the acute inflammatory response to surgery and thereby prevent surgery induced cognitive impairment. Young (3 months old) and aged (22 months old) male Wistar rats were subjected to abdominal surgery - animals were treated with enriched enteral nutrition, control groups were fasted or received ibuprofen. Spatial memory, visual recognition and location recognition were improved in rats that received high enriched diet. Reversal learning in the MWM was also improved for the groups that received enriched nutrition but also for groups that received ibuprofen as treatment before surgery, when compared to fasted control groups. In contrast with these findings, we observed in old rats that received enriched nutrition that microglial cell body to cell size ratio in the DGib, the CA3 and particularly in the CA1 region of the hippocampus was increased. Also, in contrast to the behavioural outcomes, young rats that received enriched nutrition showed higher levels of plasma IL-6. To summarize enriched diet treatment seemed to have a positive effect on improving surgery related cognitive outcomes in aged and young rats. As inflammation was previous described to be increased in rats following surgery, it seems that enriched nutrition treatment has an effect on neuro-inflammation after surgery as well. Whether this effect is attributed to a decrease in neuro-inflammation or to a shifting of activated microglia phenotype, it remains unknown due to the fact that in order to effectively characterize microglial activity, other molecular markers need to be assessed.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master's Thesis / Essay) |
|---|---|
| Degree programme: | Behavioural and Cognitive Neurosciences |
| Thesis type: | Master's Thesis / Essay |
| Language: | English |
| Date Deposited: | 15 Feb 2018 08:08 |
| Last Modified: | 15 Feb 2018 08:08 |
| URI: | https://fse.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/13323 |
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