Abstract
Background.
Environmental enrichment (EE) confers benefits after traumatic brain
injury (TBI) when provided daily for > 6 hours, but not 2 or 4 hours,
which more accurately reflects the daily amount of clinical
rehabilitation. The lack of benefit with sub-therapeutic EE suggests
that augmentation with galantamine (GAL), which enhances cognition after
TBI, may be indicated to confer benefits.
Objective. To test the
hypothesis that 2 and 4 hours of EE paired with GAL will provide
benefits comparable to 24 hours of EE alone. Moreover, all EE groups
will perform better than the standard (STD)-housed GAL group.
Methods.
Anesthetized rats received a TBI or sham injury and then were
randomized to receive intraperitoneal injections of GAL (2 mg/kg) or
saline vehicle (VEH; 1 mL/kg) beginning 24 hours after surgery and once
daily while receiving EE for 2, 4, or 24 hours. Motor and cognitive
assessments were conducted on postoperative days 1-5 and 14-19,
respectively.
Results. Motor function was significantly improved in the TBI + 24-hour EE group versus the TBI + STD + VEH and TBI + STD + GAL groups (P < .05). Cognitive performance was enhanced in all EE groups as well as in the TBI + STD + GAL versus TBI + STD + VEH (P < .05). Moreover, the 2- and 4-hour EE groups receiving GAL did not differ from the 24-hour EE group (P > .05) and performed better than GAL alone (P < .05).
Conclusions.
The findings support the hypothesis and have clinical relevance
because, often, only brief rehabilitation may be available in the clinic
and, thus, augmenting with a pharmacotherapy such as GAL may lead to
outcomes that are significantly better than either therapy alone.
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