Exercise and the Brain: Angiogenesis in the Adult Rat Cerebellum after Vigorous Physical Activity and Motor Skill Learning
Open Access
- 1 January 1992
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism
- Vol. 12 (1), 110-119
- https://doi.org/10.1038/jcbfm.1992.14
Abstract
This study compared the morphology of cerebellar cortex in adult female rats exposed for 1 month to repetitive exercise, motor learning, or an inactive condition. In the exercise conditions, rats that were run on a treadmill or housed with access to a running wheel had a shorter diffusion distance from blood vessels in the molecular layer of the paramedian lobule when compared to rats housed individually or rats that participated in a motor skill learning task. Rats taught complex motor skills substantially increased the volume of the molecular layer per Purkinje neuron and increased blood vessel number sufficiently to maintain the diffusion distance. These results dissociate angiogenesis associated with increased neuropil volume (as seen in the motor learning group) from angiogenesis associated with increased metabolic demands (as seen in the exercise groups). While the volume fraction of mitochondria did not differ among groups, the mitochondrial volume fraction per Purkinje cell was significantly increased in the motor skill rats. This appears to parallel the previously reported increase in synapses and associated neuropil volume change.Keywords
This publication has 56 references indexed in Scilit:
- The effect of carbon dioxide on the diameter of brain capillariesBrain Research, 1990
- Effects of complex experience on somatic growth and organ development in ratsDevelopmental Psychobiology, 1989
- Simple spike discharge patterns of Purkinje cells in the paramedian lobule of the cerebellum during locomotion in the awake catNeuroscience Letters, 1989
- Progressive failure of cerebral angiogenesis supporting neural plasticity in aging ratsNeurobiology of Aging, 1989
- Metabolic Support of Neural Plasticity: Implications for the Treatment of Alzheimer’s DiseasePublished by Springer Nature ,1989
- Complex experience promotes capillary formation in young rat visual cortexNeuroscience Letters, 1987
- The Vascular System of the Cerebral CortexPublished by Springer Nature ,1980
- Migration and proliferation of endothelial cells in preformed and newly formed blood vessels during tumor angiogenesisMicrovascular Research, 1977
- Chemical and Anatomical Plasticity of BrainScience, 1964
- Morphological classifications of vertebrate blood capillariesAmerican Journal of Physiology-Legacy Content, 1959