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Vitamin A and amygdala: functional and morphological consequences

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Abstract

Intake of vitamin A is essential for correct embryonic development of the central nervous system (CNS). Its increased intake during gravidity can cause various malformations and dysfunctions of the CNS. In our work, we intended to investigate the effect of vitamin A on emotional behavior and morphology of nitrergic neurons in basolateral nucleus of the rat amygdala. For this purpose, we have administered retinoic acid (RA), a metabolite of vitamin A, to females on 14–16 days of pregnancy at a dose 1 mg RA/kg body weight. Adult progeny of these mothers were tested in elevated plus maze test, the most widely used test for measuring anxiety-like behavior. After the test, brains of the rats were processed for reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate diaphorase histochemistry, which is commonly used to mark cells containing nitric oxide synthase. Our results have shown that RA applied during the sensitive phase of intrauterine development influences emotional behavior of adult rats. Animals exposed to RA had increased levels of fear and anxiety, which has been manifested by reducing the time spent in the open arms of plus maze test. Interestingly, detected behavioral changes do not correlate with the result of our morphological study. The number and morphology of nitrergic neurons in amygdala were very similar in experimental and control rats. Our results demonstrate that prenatal exposure to RA has no effect on morphological structure of amygdala, but influences its function.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by Grant No. 1/0154/11 of agency VEGA of the Slovak Ministry for Education.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, P. J. Šafárik University in Košice, Šrobárova 2, 041 80, Kosice, Slovakia

    Lenka Tomášová, Natália Hvizdošová, Adriana Boleková & Darina Kluchová

  2. Faculty of Science, Institute of Biology and Ecology, P. J. Šafárik University in Košice, Moyzesova 11, 040 01, Kosice, Slovakia

    Beňadik Šmajda

Authors
  1. Lenka Tomášová
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  2. Natália Hvizdošová
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  3. Adriana Boleková
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  4. Beňadik Šmajda
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  5. Darina Kluchová
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Correspondence to Adriana Boleková.

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Tomášová, L., Hvizdošová, N., Boleková, A. et al. Vitamin A and amygdala: functional and morphological consequences. Neurol Sci 35, 1585–1589 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-014-1802-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-014-1802-9

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