Akinobu Nagaoka

Age-related changes in learning and memory in the senescence-accelerated mouse (SAM)

Age-related changes in learning ability were studied in senescence-accelerated mice (SAM) reared under specific pathogen-free (SPF) conditions. SAM-P/8/Ta (SAM-P/8, senescence-prone substrain) showed an age-associated increase in spontaneous motor activity (SMA) compared with SAM-R/1/Ta (SAM-R/1, senescence-resistant substrain) in a novel environment when the activity was measured in the light period, although there was no significant difference in the dark period. In observations of the circadian rhythm of SMA, SAM-P/8 showed a significant increase in diurnal SMA. In SAM-P/8 mice, the acquisition of passive avoidance response was slightly but significantly impaired even at 2 months of age, compared with SAM-R/1 control; the impairment became obvious with aging. In a one-way active avoidance task, SAM-P/8 did not show any impairment in the acquisition of avoidance response at 2 and 4 months of age. However, significant impairment was observed in SAM-P/8 at 12 months of age. The impairments of avoidance tasks were not due to a decrease in shock sensitivity, as indicated by no significant change in the flinch-jump threshold. In a water-filled multiple T-maze task, there was no difference in the number of errors between the two groups. With regard to the performance time to reach the goal, however, SAM-P/8 showed a mild prolongation at 2 months of age, and the prolongation became marked with advancing age.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Characteristics of memory impairment following lesioning of the basal forebrain and medial septal nucleus in rats

Memory impairment in rats with lesions of the basal forebrain (BF) and medial septal nucleus (MS) including cell bodies of the cortical and septohippocampal cholinergic systems, respectively, were compared in order to evaluate the functional contribution of the two cholinergic systems to memory. Biochemical assay revealed that lesioning of the BF and MS resulted in marked and selective decreases in both choline acetyltransferase and acetylcholinesterase activities in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus, respectively. Rats with BF lesions exhibited a severe deficit in a passive avoidance task; acquisition of passive avoidance by repeated training was sluggish, and the acquired response was rapidly eliminated in a subsequent extinction test. However, only slight impairment of passive avoidance was observed in rats with MS lesions. Memory impairment in rats with BF or MS lesions was also investigated using two spatial localization tasks, the Morris water task and the 8-arm radial maze task. Both BF and MS lesions elicited a significant impairment in the Morris water task that required reference memory, as demonstrated by an apparent increase in the latency to escape onto a hidden platform in a large water tank. The impairment was much more obvious in the BF-lesioned rats. In contrast, in the radial maze task primarily requiring working memory, rats with lesions of the MS showed severe disruption, exhibiting a marked increase in total errors, a decrease in the number of initial correct responses, and an apparent change in the strategy pattern. However, corresponding changes in the rats with BF lesions were slight. These results suggest that BF lesions may lead to substantial long-term memory impairment while MS lesions may primarily produce short-term or working memory impairment, indicating a qualitatively different contribution of the two cholinergic systems to memory. It is also suggested that these two experimental animal models may be useful for evaluation of therapeutic drugs for senile dementia of the Alzheimer type.

Relationship between brain damage and memory impairment in rats exposed to transient forebrain ischemia

The relationship between changes in learning behavior and neurological damage following transient forebrain ischemia was studied in rats. The transient forebrain ischemia was induced by 4-vessel occlusion, and behavioral experiments were started 4 weeks later when histological damage to the brain seemed to have stabilized. Histological evaluation of brain damage was conducted after completion of the behavioral studies. The rats showed marked learning impairment in a radial maze task done from 4 to 10 weeks after ischemia. In particular, there was an increase in the number of working memory errors according to the duration of forebrain ischemia. However, the same rats showed good avoidance responses in a passive avoidance task done 12 weeks after ischemia. The rats also showed good acquisition of escape response in a water maze task carried out 13 weeks after ischemia, but showed slight impairment of spatial navigation in the transfer test. Marked neuronal degeneration was observed in the hippocampal pyramidal cells of the rats exposed to ischemia. This neuronal damage was closely related to memory impairment in the radial maze task, as demonstrated by a significant negative correlation (r = -0.609 or -0.709) between the number of surviving neurons and the number of reference or working memory errors. These results suggest that rats exposed to transient forebrain ischemia show marked impairment of both reference and working memories as a result of postischemic hippocampal damage.

Proto-oncogene c-fos is transiently induced in the rat cerebral cortex after forebrain ischemia.

The amounts of mRNAs for proto-oncogene c-fos and structural protein beta-actin were measured in the rat cerebral cortex after transient forebrain ischemia. A transient and specific induction of c-fos mRNA was noticed in the cerebral cortex 30-90 min after ischemia followed by decline to control value. In contrast, the level of mRNA for beta-actin was not altered throughout the recirculation period examined. These results suggest specific role of c-fos gene after brain damage.

Lesioning of the rat basal forebrain leads to memory impairments in passive and active avoidance tasks

Effects of the bilateral electrolytic lesioning of the basal forebrain (BF), including the ventral globus pallidus, on passive or active avoidance tasks, were studied in male Wistar rats. A severe deficit in acquisition of passive avoidance response was produced by the lesioning in the posterior level of BF. The retention of the passive avoidance response was markedly disrupted with post-training lesioning. Time-dependent but only slight recovery from the memory impairments was observed in the passive avoidance task given 4, 8 or 16 weeks after BF lesions. The acquisition of active avoidance response using a two-way shuttle box was also disturbed by BF lesioning. Retention of active avoidance response was clearly impaired by post-training lesions of the BF. The BF lesioned rats gradually acquired the passive avoidance performance when trained repeatedly at 24- or 48-h intervals, by giving a foot shock in case of avoidance failure. Extinction of the acquired passive avoidance response rapidly occurred in the BF lesioned rats. Furthermore, neurotoxic lesions of BF with kainic acid produced a significant impairment in acquisition of passive avoidance response. These results suggest that bilateral BF lesions impair the acquisition and retention of passive or active avoidance response, and that these impaired rats may be useful as an experimental model for Alzheimers disease and senile dementia.

Regional changes in the activities of aminergic biosynthetic enzymes in the brains of hypertensive rats.

The activities of monoamine biosynthetic enzymes were measured in brain regions of several hypertensive rat models at various ages. The types of hypertensive rats were the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) and a stroke-prone substrain of the SHR as well as DOCA-salt and renal hypertensive rats. The genetically hypertensive rats had significantly elevated blood pressures as compared to the Wistar-Kyoto control rat after 5 weeks of age. During the early development of hypertension in the SHR, the activities of tyrosine hydroxylase in the hypothalamus and corpus striatum and of dopamine-beta-hydroxylase in the hypothalamus and pons-medulla were significantly higher than in the control rats. Tryptophan-hydroxylase was also elevated in the hypothalamus in SHR. From 3 to 8 weeks of age there appeared to be a significant correlation between hypothalamic dopamine-beta-hydroxylase activity and blood pressure in the hypertensive rats. In contrast, the activities of tyrosine hydroxylase and dopamine-beta-hydroxylase were slightly decreased in the DOCA-salt and renal hypertensive rats. It is suggested that noradrenergic or adrenergic neurons in the hypothalamus may participate in the initiation of elevated blood pressure in the genetic, but not in the DOCA-salt or renal hypertensive rats.

Senescence-accelerated mouse (SAM): Age-related reduced anxiety-like behavior in the SAM-P/8 strain

Age-related behavioral changes in the passive avoidance, food neophobia, elevated plus-maze, and water-lick conflict tests were studied using substrains of senescence-accelerated mouse (SAM-P/8 and SAM-R/1) at 2 to 20 months of age. SAM-P/8 mice exhibited a significant impairment of acquisition of passive avoidance compared with SAM-R/1 mice when they were trained repeatedly, and the acquired response in SAM-P/8 mice rapidly diminished in contrast to good retention in SAM-R/1 mice. SAM-P/8 mice showed an age-related decrease in the latency to eat novel food after a 24-h food deprivation as compared with SAM-R/1 mice at 2 to 12 months of age, despite no significant difference in latency to eat familiar food between the two strains. In the elevated plus-maze test, SAM-P/8 mice had apparent increases in the number of entries into open arms and time spent on open arms in comparison to SAM-R/1 mice at 4 through 12 months of age; this difference became obvious with aging, implying age-associated reduced anxiety in the SAM-P/8 strain. In addition, SAM-P/8 mice exhibited a significant increase in punished water drinking compared to SAM-R/1 mice in the water-lick conflict test, although unpunished water intake in SAM-P/8 mice did not differ from that in the SAM-R/1 control. Aged SAM-R/1 mice, 20 months old, exhibited low anxiety-like behavior in the food neophobia and elevated plus-maze tests such as was seen in SAM-P/8 mice, when compared with young (4-month-old) SAM-R/1 mice.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Inhibition of lipid peroxidation by a novel compound (CV-2619) in brain mitochondria and mode of action of the inhibition

Lipid peroxidation in rat brain mitochondria was induced by NADH in the presence of ADP and FeCl3. CV-2619 inhibited the lipid peroxidation in a concentration-dependent manner; the concentration giving 50% inhibition (IC50) was 84 microM. In addition, the inhibitory effect of CV-2619 was strongly enhanced by adding substrates of mitochondrial respiration; when succinate, glutamate, or succinate plus glutamate was added, the IC50 of CV-2619 was changed to 1.1, 10, or 0.5 microM, respectively. Metabolites of CV-2619 also inhibited the lipid peroxidation. The inhibitory effect of CV-2619 on mitochondrial lipid peroxidation disappeared when TTFA, an inhibitor of complex II in mitochondrial respiratory chain, was added. The results indicate that in mitochondria CV-2619 is changed to its reduced form which inhibits lipid peroxidation.

Cholinergic drugs reverse AF64A-induced impairment of passive avoidance learning in rats

The cholinergic neurotoxin AF64A was administered to rats in order to produce learning impairment to test the effect of cholinergic drugs. Seven days after receiving an intracerebroventricular injection of AF64A (2.5–7.5 nmol), rats were subjected to one-trial passive avoidance acquisition and tested 24 h later. Learning was significantly impaired at 3.75 nmol AF64A, a dose at which significant reduction in acetylcholine level and choline acetyltransferase and acetylcholinesterase activity in the hippocampus was observed but changes in monoamine levels in the hippocampus, general behavior, or sensory sensitivity were not observed. Arecoline (4 mg/kg, IP) and physostigmine (0.1 mg/kg, IP) significantly decreased the learning impairment produced by AF64A (3.75 nmol) when given before the acquisition of passive avoidance learning but not when given after the acquisition or before the 24 h retention test. These drugs and oxotremorine (0.1 mg/kg, IP) given immediately after the acquisition, however, improved passive avoidance retention when the interval between the acquisition and the test was shortened to 1 h. These results indicate that the impairment of learning in AF64A-treated rats is caused by a memory retention deficit and suggest that such impairment can be effectively ameliorated by cholinergic drugs.

Effects of idebenone on neurological deficits, local cerebral blood flow, and energy metabolism in rats with experimental cerebral ischemia

Improvement of energy metabolism in ischemic cerebral tissue benefits the therapy of occlusive cerebrovascular disorders. In the present study, the effects of 6-(10-hydroxydecyl)-2,3-dimethoxy-5-methyl-1,4-benzoquinone (idebenone) on neurological signs, such as ischemic seizures, lactate and ATP contents of the cerebral cortex, and local cerebral blood flow, were assessed in stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRSP) with experimentally induced cerebral ischemia. Experimental cerebral ischemia was caused by bilateral carotid artery occlusion (BCAO) in male SHRSP (8-10 weeks old). Pretreatment with idebenone (10-100 mg/kg, p.o.) for 3 or 10 days delayed the onset of ischemic seizure (acute stroke) and prolonged survival time in SHRSP roughly in a dose-dependent manner. When the compound (100 mg/kg, i.p.) was given once 30 min after BCAO, it exerted similar ameliorating effects on the neurological deficits. When idebenone (100 mg/kg for 3 days) was given orally, it did not significantly inhibit the decrease in regional cerebral blood flow induced by BCAO. However, the same treatment markedly inhibited increases in the lactate content and lactate/pyruvate ratio and the decrease in ATP content of the cerebral cortex. The compound did not affect cerebral blood flow in normal rats. These results suggest that idebenone ameliorates the neurological deficits related to cerebral ischemia, and that this effect is mediated by improving cerebral energy metabolism.