Bradley QR, Borowski TB, de Lacalle S (2002) The effects of 17ß-estradiol on odor discrimination of ovariectomized and intact young and aged rats following unilateral lesions of the nucleus of the horizontal diagonal band of broca (HDB). Neuroscience 2002 Abstracts 385.3. Society for Neuroscience, Orlando, FL.
Summary: Estradiol exerts beneficial effects on cognitive performance. The present study was designed to investigate the effect of estradiol on learning and memory following the destruction of cholinergic neurons of the HDB, a basal forebrain region that exhibits significant neuronal loss during aging and may underlie the cognitive deficits associated with Alzheimers disease. Young (3 months old) and aged (20 months old) ovariectomized and gonadally intact Fisher 344 female rats were given unilateral lesions of the HDB with the cholinergic immunotoxin 192 IgG-saporin (.075mg/ml). Starting one week after surgery rats were tested on an odor discrimination task whereby rats were trained to associate a food reward buried within a scented cup of sand relative to a dissimilar scented cup of sand that contained no reward. Following stable levels of acquisition and retention, subjects were exposed to a reversal procedure where the previously unrewarded cup was now baited. Odor discrimination acquisition, retention and reversal were assessed before and after one month of 17β-estradiol exposure or placebo. Analysis of learning curves revealed that young rats performed better than the aged animals independent of estradiol treatment during the reversal component of the task. However, within each age group 17β-estradiol treatment facilitated performance in ovariectomized rats relative to placebo controls. These findings shed new light on the cognitive enhancing properties of estradiol in age-related cholinergic neurodegenerative disorders.
Related Products: 192-IgG-SAP (Cat. #IT-01)