People
Assistant Professor
Ph.D., Moscow State University, 1992
Office
131 Wolf Hall
(302) 831-0452
(302) 831-3645 Fax
Lab
122 Wolf Hall
(302) 831-2647
Opening(s) available for grad students. Please contact Anna Klintsova at klintsova@psych.udel.edu
Anna Klintsova
Experience-dependent developmental and adult brain plasticity
My major research interest is the evaluation of plasticity of the normal/healthy vs. damaged nervous system on behavioral and system/cellular levels. I am currently using a rat animal model of alcohol abuse during pregnancy, to study the damaging effects of alcohol on the developing brain and on the altered behavior. The major questions that I address in my current research are the extent of the alcohol-related damage and whether behavioral intervention can ameliorate that damage on both behavioral and structural levels. In attempt to improve behavioral (motor) performance and increase brain plasticity in alcohol-exposed animals I am using different conditions (motor task learning, physical exercise) that are known to facilitate brain synaptogenesis. The evaluation of plasticity is done on the behavioral (testing the motor abilities and memory), cellular (light microscopy, immunohistochemistry, optical densitometry, neuronal tract-tracing) and sub-cellular (electron microscopy) levels. For more information, see this recent article, courtesy of the University of Illinois.
The major questions that I am planning to answer are:
Is the brain more susceptible for rehabilitation at an earlier age?
How persistent is the behavioral and morphological rehabilitation / compensation?
What are the "players" underlying the mechanism of developmental damage by alcohol and possible rehabilitation (e.g.neurotrophic factors, glial activation)?
What are the limits for partial rehabilitation if the damage from developmental alcohol exposure is more widespread in the brain (in case of alcohol exposure during all three trimesters)?
Is there a suppression of neurogenesis and/or cell genesis in the alcohol-exposed brain (cortex and hippocampus)?
And in case the neuronal proliferation is down after developmental exposure to alcohol - is it possible to stimulate it by learning and exercise?
Recent Publications
Helfer, JL, Goodlett, CR, Greenough, WT, Klintsova AY (in press) Voluntary Exercise Increases Hippocampal Neurogenesis in Adolescent Rats Following Early Postnatal Alcohol Exposure. Brain Research
Hamilton GF, Whitcher LT and Klintsova AY (2009) Postnatal binge-like alcohol exposure decreases dendritic complexity while increasing the density of mature spines in mPFC layer III pyramidal neurons. Synapse (in press)
Helfer JL, Calizo LH, Dong WK, Goodlett CR, Greenough WT, Klintsova AY (2009) Binge-like Postnatal Alcohol Exposure Triggers Cortical Gliogenesis in Adolescent Rats. Journal of Comparative Neurology, 514(3): 259-271.
Whitcher LT, Klintsova AY (2008) Postnatal binge-like alcohol exposure reduces spine density without affecting dendritic morphology in rat mPFC. Synapse, 62(8):566-73.
Uranova NA, Vikhreva OV, Zimina IS, Rakhmanova VI, Klintsova AY, Black J, Greenough WT, Orlovskaia DD (2007) Abnormal patterns of cortical synaptic connectivity in schizophrenia. Vestn Ross Akad Med Nauk. 3:8-14
Savage LM, Roland J, Klintsova A . (2007) Selective septohippocampal – but not forebrain amygdalar – cholinergic dysfunction in diencephalic amnesia. Brain Research, 1139:210-219.
A.Y.Klintsova; L.H. Calizo; J.L. Helfer; W.K. Dong; C.R.Goodlett; W.T. Greenough. (2007) Persistent impairment of hippocampal neurogenesis in young adult rats following early postnatal alcohol exposure. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 31(12): 2073-2082.
Roegge CS, Morris JR, Villareal S, Wang VC, Powers BE, Klintsova AY , Greenough WT, Pessah IN, Schantz SL. (2006) Purkinje cell and cerebellar effects following developmental exposure to PCBs and/or MeHg. Neurotoxicol Teratol. 28(10): 74-85.
Guerri C, Pascual M, Garcia-Minguillan MC, Charness ME, Wilkemeyer MF, Klintsova AY , Goodlett CR, Greenough WT, Sakata-Haga H, Dominguez HD, Thomas JD (2005) Fetal Alcohol Effects: Potential Treatments From Basic Science. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 29(6): 1074-1079.
Black JE, Kodish IM, Grossman AW, Klintsova AY , Orlovskaya D, Vostrikov V, Uranova N, Greenough WT. (2004) Quantitative Pathology of Layer V Pyramidal Neurons in Schizophrenic Prefrontal Cortex. Am J of Psychiatry, 161(4):742-4.
Roegge CS, Wang VC, Powers BE, Klintsova AY , Villareal S, Greenough WT, Schantz SL. (2004) Motor Impairment in Rats Exposed to PCBs and Methylmercury During Early Development. Toxicol Sci, 77(2):315-24.
Weiler IJ, Spangler CC, Klintsova AY , Grossman AW, Kim SH, Bertaina-Anglade V, Khaliq H, de Vries FE, Lambers FA, Hatia F, Base CK, Greenough WT (2004) From the Cover: Fragile X mental retardation protein is necessary for neurotransmitter-activated protein translation at synapses. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 101 (50):17504-9.
Briones TL, Klintsova AY , Greenough WT (2004) Stability of synaptic plasticity in the adult rat visual cortex induced by complex environmental exposure. Brain Research, 1018: 130-135.
F. Angenstein, R.E. Settlage, J.E. Kacharmina, S.T. Moran, S.-C. Ling, A. Klintsova , J. Eberwine, D.F. Hunt, W.T. Greenough. RACK1, a receptor for activated C kinase, links metabotropic glutamate receptor activation with dendritic translational control. (2002) J Neurosci, 22(20):8827-37.
Representative Publications
Klintsova AY, Dickson E, Yoshida R, Greenough WT (2004) Altered expression of BDNF and its high-affinity receptor TrkB in response to complex motor learning and moderate exercise. Brain Research, 1028(1):92-104
KlintsovaAY , Scamra C., Hoffman M., Goodlett CR., Napper RMA and WT. Greenough. Therapeutic effect of complex motor skill learning on binge-like postnatal alcohol-induced motor performance deficits: II. Quantitative Study of Synaptic Plasticity Using Unbiased Stereology.(2002) Brain Research, 937, p. 83-93.
A.Y.Klintsova , W.T.Greenough. (1999) Synaptic plasticity in cortical systems. Current Opinions in Neurobiology, v.9, p.203-208.
A.Y.Klintsova , C.R.Goodlett, W.T.Greenough. (1999) Therapeutic motor training ameliorates cerebellar effects of postnatal binge alcohol. Neurotoxicology and Teratology, 22, 125-132.
