Arshad S, Li P, Fitz NF, Johnson DA (2004) Effect of dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate on retention in passive avoidance in septal hippocampal cholinergic lesioned rats. Neuroscience 2004 Abstracts 436.11. Society for Neuroscience, San Diego, CA.
Summary: Infusions of 192 IgG-saporin (SAP) into the medial septum (MS) selectively destroys cholinergic neurons projecting to the hippocampus. Our previous study demonstrated that this lesion impairs retention but not acquisition of a passive avoidance (PA) task in rats. The present study determined whether the neurosteroid Dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) (0, 1, 3, 10, 30 mg/ml) could reverse SAP induced impairments of PA retention. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were administered either SAP (.22μg/μl) or vehicle directly into the MS. Passive Avoidance training began 2 weeks later. Training consisted of placing the animal into the lighted chamber of the apparatus and then delivering a foot shock (.75mA, 1 sec), when the animal moved into the adjacent darkened chamber. Training was repeated until the animal avoided the dark chamber for 2 consecutive trials of 2 minutes duration. Retention (latency to crossover to the dark chamber) was tested after seven days. DHEAS was administered one hour prior to retention testing. Results showed a dose dependent increase in crossover latency in SAP treated animals. DHEAS treatment in control animals, however, resulted in a dose dependent decrease in crossover latency. Thus, DHEAS attenuated the impairment in retention in SAP treated animals with hippocampal cholinergic hypofunction, but impaired retention in cholinergically intact rats in PA.
Related Products: 192-IgG-SAP (Cat. #IT-01)