Rodentia | EPFL Graph Search

Les rongeurs ou Rodentiens (Rodentia) sont un ordre de mammifères placentaires (le plus grand ordre de mammifères, regroupant plus de ). Ces animaux se caractérisent par leur unique paire d'incisives à croissance continue sur chacune de leurs mâchoires (ce qui les distingue des Lagomorphes), qui leur servent à ronger leur nourriture, à creuser des galeries ou à se défendre. Le reste de leur morphologie est relativement variable, mais la majorité des espèces sont de petite taille, avec un corps trapu, des pattes courtes et une longue queue. La plupart des rongeurs se nourrissent de graines ou d'autres matières végétales, mais d'autres ont des régimes alimentaires plus variés. Ce sont souvent des animaux sociaux et beaucoup d'espèces vivent en communauté au sein desquelles les individus interagissent et communiquent entre eux de façon complexe. Le mode de reproduction peut être monogame, polygyne ou avec promiscuité sexuelle. De nombreuses espèces ont des portées de petits peu développ

Impaired cognitive flexibility and heightened urgency are associated with increased alcohol consumption in rodent models of excessive drinking

Emanuela De Falco

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is characterized by impairments in decision-making that can exist as stable traits or transient states. Cognitive inflexibility reflects an inability to update information that guides decision-making and is thought to contribute to the inability to abstain from drinking. While several studies have reported evidence of impaired cognitive flexibility following chronic alcohol exposure, evidence that a pre-existing impairment in cognitive flexibility is a heritable risk factor for AUD is scarce. Here, we found that cognitive flexibility was impaired in rodents selectively bred for excessive alcohol consumption (alcohol preferring (P) rats), on the attentional set-shifting task (ASST). Further, the degree of impairment is predictive of future ethanol consumption, thus suggesting that cognitive inflexibility is a stable trait capable of predisposing one for drinking. In a second set of experiments, we observed an impairment in the ability of P rats to use a previously learned rule to guide foraging in a simple discrimination task. Convergence across several behavioral measures suggested that this impairment reflected a state of heightened urgency that interfered with decision-making. A similar impairment on a simple discrimination task was observed in Wistar rats with a history of alcohol consumption. These findings indicate how trait and state variables-in this case, impaired cognitive flexibility and heightened urgency, respectively-may influence the risk for excessive drinking. Furthermore, our results suggest that cognitive inflexibility and urgency can exist as both risk factors for and the result of alcohol exposure.

WILEY2021

Dopaminergic fiber protection and regeneration by Wlds protein and GDNF in rodent models of Parkinson disease

Ali Etemad-Sajadi

Parkinson disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta. The resulting failure of the nigrostriatal pathway leads to profound dopamine deficiency, causing bradykinesia, tremor, rigidity and postural imbalance. The current therapeutic options for this disabling disorder remain symptomatic and are devoid of any impact on the neurodegeneration process per se. The development of neuroprotective and regenerative strategies constitute therefore an important challenge, in order to halt and possibly reverse the loss of the nigrostriatal pathway in PD. In the present study, we have investigated two different approaches to protect or restore the nigrostriatal dopaminergic system in rodent models of PD. In the first part, we examined the potential of a spontaneous dominant mutation in mice called slow Wallerian degeneration (Wlds) to confer protection of the dopaminergic pathway against the catecholaminergic toxin 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA). Interestingly, the Wlds fusion protein proved capable to provide functional preservation of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic terminals. The observed Wlds-mediated protection of dopaminergic axons might help to further elucidate the mechanisms leading to the loss of dopamine axons in PD and conduct to the development of new therapeutic modalities for this disorder. In the second approach, we assessed the protective and regenerative potential of the neurotrophic factor glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) delivered via capsules in a rat model of PD. GDNF delivery by encapsulated cells resulted in regeneration of dopaminergic fibers and behavioral improvement in a bilateral 6-OHDA model in the rat. Importantly, GDNF withdrawal did not affect the morphological and behavioral effects in our model. The sustainability of the striatal dopaminergic reinnervation and behavioral performances following GDNF washout has important implications. It suggests that GDNF needs to be delivered only transiently to allow prolonged functional regenerative effect, rendering the retrievable capsules attractive to achieve this purpose in PD patients. The promising potential of GDNF to protect and regenerate the nigrostriatal pathway has been hampered by several recent studies showing that long-term GDNF overexpression in the intact nigrostriatal pathway induces a downregulation of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), the rate-limiting enzyme in the synthesis of dopamine. In the last part of this work, we aimed therefore at investigating the effect of GDNF on other enzymes of dopamine biosynthesis, using a lentiviral vector-mediated gene transfer technique, in order to overexpress GDNF in rat striatum. We showed that in addition to TH downregulation, long-term GDNF overexpression results in tetrahydrobiopterin upregulation, and importantly in dopamine decrease in the intact striatum of rats. In a clinical perspective, dose and treatment duration of the trophic factor will thus have to be established and optimized with the aim of achieving beneficial neuroprotective effects while circumventing undesirable pharmacologic effects on dopamine biosynthesis. The discovery of new protective molecules such as the Wlds protein, as well as a better understanding of cellular effects of the promising neurotrophic factor GDNF might lead to the establishment of neuroprotective and neuroregenerative strategies for PD in the close future.

EPFL2005

Required growth facilitators propel axon regeneration across complete spinal cord injury

Mark Andrew Anderson, Sabry Leonardo Barlatey, Grégoire Courtine, Zhigang He, Nicholas David James, Michael V. Sofroniew, Cheng Wang

Transected axons fail to regrow across anatomically complete spinal cord injuries (SCI) in adults. Diverse molecules can partially facilitate or attenuate axon growth during development or after injury1,2,3, but efficient reversal of this regrowth failure remains elusive4. Here we show that three factors that are essential for axon growth during development but are attenuated or lacking in adults—(i) neuron intrinsic growth capacity2,5,6,7,8,9, (ii) growth-supportive substrate10,11 and (iii) chemoattraction12,13—are all individually required and, in combination, are sufficient to stimulate robust axon regrowth across anatomically complete SCI lesions in adult rodents. We reactivated the growth capacity of mature descending propriospinal neurons with osteopontin, insulin-like growth factor 1 and ciliary-derived neurotrophic factor before SCI14,15; induced growth-supportive substrates with fibroblast growth factor 2 and epidermal growth factor; and chemoattracted propriospinal axons with glial-derived neurotrophic factor16,17 delivered via spatially and temporally controlled release from biomaterial depots18,19, placed sequentially after SCI. We show in both mice and rats that providing these three mechanisms in combination, but not individually, stimulated robust propriospinal axon regrowth through astrocyte scar borders and across lesion cores of non-neural tissue that was over 100-fold greater than controls. Stimulated, supported and chemoattracted propriospinal axons regrew a full spinal segment beyond lesion centres, passed well into spared neural tissue, formed terminal-like contacts exhibiting synaptic markers and conveyed a significant return of electrophysiological conduction capacity across lesions. Thus, overcoming the failure of axon regrowth across anatomically complete SCI lesions after maturity required the combined sequential reinstatement of several developmentally essential mechanisms that facilitate axon growth. These findings identify a mechanism-based biological repair strategy for complete SCI lesions that could be suitable to use with rehabilitation models designed to augment the functional recovery of remodelling circuits

2018