engleski

Environmental and metabolic therapeutic strategies improve anxiety-related behaviour in a rat model of sporadic Alzheimer’s disease

Objectives Literature data indicate that physical and mental activities have beneficial effects on cognitive impairments in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), while our previous results suggest possible beneficial effect of galactose treatment in sAD animal model, streptozotocin- intracerebroventricularly (STZ-icv) treated rats. We investigated whether the long-term enriched housing and galactose treatment could improve learning and memory deficits and anxiety found in this sAD animal model. Methods Adult male Wistar rats were given STZ-icv (3 mg/kg) while controls received vehicle only. One group received oral galactose treatment (200 mg/kg) 4 month after icv injections and continued for 2 months on daily basis until sacrifice. The other group was rendered for 9 weeks to enriched housing (EH) 3 weeks after STZ-icv treatment. Behavioural assessment was done by Morris Water Maze Swimming (MWM) test, Dry maze (DM) and Open field test (OF). Data were analysed by Kruskal-Wallis and Mann- Whitney U-test (p<0.05). Result Significant deficit in learning and memory functions was found 3 (-31%, MWM) and 6 (+58%, MWM) month after STZ-icv treatment, in comparison to the controls, and increased anxiety (+142%, DM and +395%, OF, respectively). Changes in anxiety were normalised in rats subjected to EH and galactose treatment, while only EH normalised learning and memory deficit. Conclusion Results indicate that intensive and long-term mental activity and galactose treatment alleviates anxiety-like behaviour in STZ-icv rat model of sAD, while cognitive improvement depends on the start of the treatment after the STZ-icv injection that might depend on irreversible changes found previously in later stages of AD in this model. Supported by MZOS (108-1080003-0020), DAAD and HRZZ-IP-2014-09-4639.

streptozotocin ; Alzheimer's disease ; anxiety ; galactose

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