Papel do receptor de estrogênio acoplado à proteína G (GPER) em um modelo de disfunção cognitiva induzida pela sobrecarga neonatal de ferro e ovariectomia em ratas

Abstract

The present study investigated if the model of memory dysfunction induced by iron overload, so far only tested in male rats, would be able to induce cognitive decline in female rats, aiming to validate it as an experimental model to study gender differences in neurodegenerative diseases. We also evaluated the effects of the activation of the G protein coupled estrogen receptor (GPER) on iron- and ovariectomy-induced memory deficits and the role of the PKA/CREB pathway as a mediator of its physiologic effects. Four experiments were performed: I – female rats received iron (30mg/kg, per oral, p.o.) or vehicle (sorbitol, p.o.) in the neonatal period and after, in adulthood, they were submitted to the surgical protocol: ovariectomy (OVX) or false-surgery (SHAM), after 3 weeks, behavioral tasks were performed using the object recognition (RO); object location (OL) and inhibitory avoidance (IA) tasks; II – the same two protocols cited before and behavioral tasks 3 weeks from the surgeries, but, immediately after the training sessions the animals received the selective agonist of the GPER, G1 (10mg/kg, subcutaneously, sc.) or vehicle (veh, oil, sc.), the long-term memory was assessed 24h after the training sessions; III – dose-response curve in order to determine the the effects of the PKA-inhibitor (H-89) on memory retention of inhibitory avoidance task, the following doses were administered intraperitoneally to naïve adult female rats: 0.1 mg/kg; 0.25mg/kg or 0.5mg/kg; and finally the experiment IV in which the memory of iron overloaded-ovariectomized female rats was assessed 24h after that they had received H-89 (0.25mg/kg, ip.) or veh 15 minutes previous to the training sessions and G1 (10mg/kg, sc.) or veh immediately after their training in the OL and IA tasks. We observed that the effects of iron overload in female, associated or non-associated to OVX varied according to the behavioral test that the animals were submitted. The lowest recognition index level in OL task was observed in the animals exposed to the iron overload and, subsequently, to the lack of estrogens secondary to ovariectomy. The acute post-training treatment with G-1 increased the recognition index in the OL task and it was also associated with an increasing in the latency to step down ifrom the platform to the grid in the IA task. Finally, all these positive results obtained with the post-training administration of G-1 were abolished when the animals received the pre-training treatment of H-89. Our study opens new avenues in the field of memory and estrogens once it introduces the association of lack of estradiol and iron overload as a pre-clinical phenotypical model of the aging process in women. Besides, from the best of our knowledge, it is the first evidence of the role of the G1 in the consolidation of the emotional memory as well as the first study connecting the GPER directly to the PKA/CREB pathway.