Hippocampal plasticity in rats submitted to a gastric restrictive procedure

Bariatric surgery has been the most effective therapeutic intervention for morbidly obese patients. However, recent evidence has shown that this procedure may cause serious neurological complications such as Wernicke encephalopathy, depression, and memory impairment. With this in mind, we conducted an experimental study to investigate whether weight-reduction surgery would promote morphological changes in the hippocampal formation, a brain region linked to cognitive and emotional processes. To do so, the present study evaluated the hippocampal expression of parvalbumin interneurons in rats submitted to a gastric restrictive procedure (experimental phytobezoar). Our results demonstrated that rats with gastric-reduced capacity presented a significant increase in the expression of the parvalbumin interneurons in the hippocampal CA1 and CA3 subfields. These data are the first experimental evidence that restrictive bariatric surgery may alter hippocampal cytoarchitecture.