Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 2, 2026
Treating SCA1 Mice with Water-Soluble Compounds to Non-Specifically Boost Mitochondrial Function
Published on: January 22, 2017
Resveratrol reserved hypoxia-ischemia induced childhood hippocampal dysfunction and neurogenesis via improving
Hong Li1, Xiao Li2, Zhizhen Liu2
1Department of Pediatrics, The First Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, China.
Insights
Resveratrol (RES) treatment improved cognitive and emotional deficits in mice after early life stress. This natural compound promotes hippocampal neurogenesis and enhances mitochondrial function, offering a potential therapy for childhood brain development disorders.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Biology
- Pharmacology
Background:
- Early life stress, including neonatal hypoxic ischemia (HI), significantly impairs brain development, leading to cognitive and emotional disorders.
- Hippocampal neurogenesis is crucial for mediating behavior and is vulnerable to neonatal HI during childhood development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate resveratrol (RES) as a potential therapeutic agent for improving brain function after neonatal HI.
- To elucidate the mechanisms by which RES influences neurogenesis and mitochondrial dynamics.
Main Methods:
- Neonatal HI model in mice, followed by RES treatment.
- Behavioral tests including Morris water maze and objective recognition task.
- Assessment of hippocampal neurogenesis and neuronal differentiation.
- In vitro studies on neural stem cells and primary neurons to examine mitochondrial function.
Main Results:
- RES treatment improved spatial learning, memory, and recognition ability in HI mice.
- RES attenuated depressive- and anxiety-like behaviors.
- RES promoted neural stem cell proliferation and neuronal differentiation in the hippocampus.
- RES prevented mitochondrial fragmentation in neural stem cells and neurons exposed to hypoxia.
Conclusions:
- Resveratrol effectively ameliorates cognitive deficits and emotional disorders in childhood following neonatal HI.
- RES-mediated improvements are linked to enhanced hippocampal neurogenesis and preserved mitochondrial dynamics.
Abstract:
Early life stress usually causes the abnormal brain development and results in the onset of cognitive and emotional disorders in later childhood. Neonatal hypoxic ischemia (HI) causes dramatic brain damage in early life and resulted in serious impairment to brain development. Hippocampal neurogenesis, as one of the key structural plasticity to mediate animal behaviors, can be impact by neonatal HI until child stage. In our study, we identified the natural product resveratrol (RES) as the potential alternative therapy to improve brain functions of childhood mice after underwent neonatal HI. Treatment of RES improved the spatial learning and memory in morris water maze and increased the recognize ability in objective recognition task. Moreover, RES also attenuate the depressive and anxiety like mood in child mice after experiencing neonatal HI. Brain morphological study showed RES promote the proliferation of neural stem cells and increase the neuronal differentiation in hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) region. Our in vitro study in C17.2 neural stem cell line demonstrated RES could prevent the mitochondrial fragmentation induced by hypoxia. Moreover, same effect was also observed in primary cultural neurons. To summarize, RES could prevent the cognitive deficit and depressive/anxiety mood in childhood with experience of neonatal HI via promoting hippocampal neurogenesis. Improving mitochondrial dynamics could be one of the key biological mechanisms underlying such effects of RES.
Related Concept Videos
01:37Mitochondria
01:45Mitochondrial Membranes