Functional deficits in menopause-associated encephalopathy: a behavioural rodent study.

Event Abstract Back to Event Functional deficits in menopause-associated encephalopathy: a behavioural rodent study. Ming-Sum Yu1, Rudi D'Hooge1 and Ann Van Der Jeugd1* 1 KU Leuven, Belgium In this study, 4-months old ovariectomised (OVX) mice (n = 15) and sham control mice of the same age (n = 15) were used. Following surgery and recovery, all mice were subjected to behavioural tests at 6 months to examine the effects of early menopause on behaviour. The tests examined general exploratory activity, anxiety, depression-like behaviours, object recognition memory, social exploration and sociability, and several forms of learning and memory. Results of the open field test showed that, compared to shams, OVX mice did not spend less time in the centre of the arena (Figure 1. A), but were significantly more reluctant to enter the centre (Figure 1. B). In concordance, in the elevated plus maze test, OVX mice spent significantly less time in the open arms of the elevated plus-maze (Figure 1.C) compared to sham mice. When tested for behavioural despair in the forced swim test, OVX mice were more immobile during the first half of the test, reflecting depression-like behaviors in these mice (Figure 1.D). Tested for cognitive functioning, OVX mice showed a significant decrease in novel-object recognition (Figure 2.A). Interestingly, ovariectomy also tended to affect social memory (Figure 2B.), but this needs further investigation. When tested for spatial learning and memory, OVX miced learned the hidden platform position equally well as shams (Figure 2.C). However, on the second probe trial, when the platform was removed, OVX mice spent less time in the target quadrant (Figure 2.D). This lacking preference for the former target in OVX mice was also reflected in the heat maps (Figure 2.E). Finally, when tested for fear memory in the passive avoidance test, OVX mice showed no difference in memory retention for the fearful event 24hrs later when compared to shams (Figure 2.F). Our findings suggest that menopause is associated with anxiety-like behaviour and cognitive problems. They indicate that our mouse model has menopause-associated encephalopathy-like features. We plan to link these first results to neuroplasticity and neurostructural measurements properties. Figure 1 Figure 2 Acknowledgements KU Leuven internal fund to RD, FWO postdoctoral fellowship to AVdJ References (1) Utian WH. Menopause. 2001 Dec;8(6):398–401. (2) Monteleone P et al. Nat Rev Endocrinol. 2018 Apr;14(4):199–215. (3) Weber MT et al. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2014 Jul;142:90–98. (4) Rocca WA et al. Menopause. 2008 Dec;15(6):1050–1059. (5) Walf AA et al. Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 2004 Jul;78(3):523–529. (6) Lund TD et al. Endocrinology. 2005 Feb;146(2):797–807. (7) de Chaves G et al. Physiol Behav. 2009 Jun 22;97(3-4):420–425. (8) Fratiglioni L et al. Neurology. 1997 Jan;48(1):132–138. (9) Gao S et al. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1998 Sep;55(9):809–815. (10) Ruitenberg A et al. Neurobiol Aging. 2001 Aug;22(4):575–580. (11) Pike CJ et al. Front Neuroendocrinol. 2009 Jul;30(2):239–258. Keywords: Dementia, Menopause, encephalopathy, Learning and Memory (Neurosciences), Emotional behaviors Conference: 13th National Congress of the Belgian Society for Neuroscience , Brussels, Belgium, 24 May - 24 May, 2019. Presentation Type: Poster presentation Topic: Behavioral/Systems Neuroscience Citation: Yu M, D'Hooge R and Van Der Jeugd A (2019). Functional deficits in menopause-associated encephalopathy: a behavioural rodent study.. Front. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: 13th National Congress of the Belgian Society for Neuroscience . doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2019.96.00043 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 26 Apr 2019; Published Online: 27 Sep 2019. * Correspondence: Dr. Ann Van Der Jeugd, KU Leuven, Leuven, 3000, Belgium, ann.vanderjeugd@psy.kuleuven.be Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Ming-Sum Yu Rudi D'Hooge Ann Van Der Jeugd Google Ming-Sum Yu Rudi D'Hooge Ann Van Der Jeugd Google Scholar Ming-Sum Yu Rudi D'Hooge Ann Van Der Jeugd PubMed Ming-Sum Yu Rudi D'Hooge Ann Van Der Jeugd Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.