Similar effects of aging and corticosterone treatment on mouse hippocampal function

Cumulative exposure to corticosterone (CORT) during the lifespan plays an important role in the hippocampal aging process, and similar disturbances have been observed in chronic stress. However, there is little information on the electrophysiological changes observed in these two situations at the hippocampal level. The present study investigates the electrophysiological changes observed in control conditions and after a 10 microM CORT bath application on hippocampal slices taken from control adult BALB/c mice, from adult animals subjected to chronic overexposure to corticosterone (20 mg/kg/day during 3 months) and from aged animals. No electrophysiological difference was observed in the CA1 area of chronically CORT treated and aged groups compared to the control group. Conversely, the input/output curves from the dentate area showed a similar, statistically significant right shift in these two groups compared to the control group. Furthermore, in control subjects, a 10 microM CORT bath application produced the classical population spike amplitude decrease. However, in slices taken from chronically CORT-treated and aged mice, this effect did not occur in the CA1 while it was replaced by a population spike amplitude increase in the dentate. This increase was blocked by spironolactone. These electrophysiological alterations may indicate that a part of the aged-induced functional disturbances is mediated by glucocorticoids, and may progressively lead to impairment of neuroendocrine functions and behavioral adaptation.