Repeated administration of acrylamide for 28 days reduces late-stage progenitor cells and immature granule cells accompanying impaired neurite outgrowth in the adult hippocampal neurogenesis in young-adult rats.

Acrylamide (AA) is a neurotoxicant that causes synaptic impairment in distal axons. We previously found that developmental exposure to AA decreased proliferation of late-stage neural progenitor cells (NPCs) in the hippocampal neurogenesis of the dentate gyrus (DG) in rats. To investigate whether hippocampal neurogenesis is similarly affected by AA exposure in a general toxicity study, AA was administered to 7-week-old male rats via oral gavage at dosages of 0, 5, 10, and 20 mg/kg for 28 days. In the subgranular zone (SGZ) and granule cell layer, AA decreased the densities of doublecortin-positive (+) cells and TOAD-64/Ulip/CRMP protein 4b+ cells per SGZ length. In addition, AA decreased the neurite length of doublecortin+ cells and downregulated genes related to neurite outgrowth (Ncam2 and Nrep) and neurotrophic factor (Bdnf and Ntrk2) in the DG. These results suggest that AA exposure for 28 days decreases type-3 NPCs and immature granule cells in neurogenesis of granule cell lineages involving the impairment of neurite outgrowth in young-adult rats. In the DG hilus, AA increased the density of cholinergic receptor nicotinic beta 2 subunit+ cells. AA also downregulated Reln related to the control of neuronal migration by interneurons in the DG. Furthermore, AA decreased the density of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP)+ astrocytes in the DG hilus and downregulated Gfap and the genes of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (Cspg4 and Pdgfra). Thus, AA decreased granule cell lineage subpopulations in the late-stage differentiation of hippocampal neurogenesis after young-adult stage exposure, exhibiting a pattern similar to the developmental exposure.