Abstract

In the rat brain, parvalbumin (PV) expression starts on postnatal day 8 and comprises a heterogeneous population of nonpyramidal GABAergic neurons. In the present work, an immunohistochemical study was done on control and experimental rats submitted to enriched environmental conditions between postnatal days 3 to 18 or 3 to 24. Counts of PV+ neurons were made in the dorsomedial and in the ventrolateral regions of the somatosensory cortex. In control animals, PV+ neurons reached a peak on day 24 declining towards day 120. In these rats a peculiar distribution pattern was detected in which immunoreactive neurons are more numerous in the dorsomedial than ventrolateral regions as well in infragranular than supragranular layers and in posterior regions than anterior ones. Differences observed in these three dimensions were well established on day 24. Rats exposed to the enriched environment from day 3 to day 24 show a reduction (26%) in the number of PV+ neurons. The effects of the enrichment persisted for at least 12 days since animals submitted to the enriched condition from day 3 to day 18 and sacrificed on day 30 present a similar reduction (29%) in the number of PV immunoreactive neurons. Environmental enrichment induces a significant reduction of PV+ neurons but the overall distribution is retained. This finding suggests some degree of stability in the expression of PV in the rat somatosensory cortex