Olfactory enrichment enhances the survival of newly born... : NeuroReport (original) (raw)

SENSORY AND MOTOR SYSTEMS

Olfactory enrichment enhances the survival of newly born cortical neurons in adult mice

Shapiro, Lee A.a *; Ng, Kwan L.b *; Zhou, Qun-Yongb; Ribak, Charles E.a

Departments of aAnatomy and Neurobiology

bPharmacology, School of Medicine, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, California, USA

Correspondence to Dr Lee A. Shapiro, PhD, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, School of Medicine, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697-1275, USA

Tel: +1 949 824 4558; fax: +1 949 824 8549; e-mail: [email protected]

Received 15 February 2007; accepted 26 February 2007

*Lee A. Shapiro and Kwan L. Ng contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

Neurogenesis persists in the adult rodent olfactory epithelium and olfactory bulbs. Recent studies suggest that neurogenesis might also occur in the adult rodent piriform cortex, the primary cortical projection site of the olfactory bulbs. To determine whether olfactory enrichment influences neurogenesis in the mouse piriform cortex, olfactory enrichment was used in combination with bromodeoxyuridine labeling. Quantification of the number of bromodeoxyuridine-labeled cells in the piriform cortex that double label for either the immature neuronal marker, doublecortin, or the mature neuronal marker, neuronal nuclei or NeuN, showed that olfactory enrichment increases the survival of newborn neurons in the piriform cortex. These results confirm that neurogenesis occurs in the piriform cortex of rodents and suggest that it may play a neuroplastic role there.