Behaviour and Degenerative Changes in the Basal Forebrain Systems of Aged Rats (12 Months Old) after Levo-Acetyl-Carnitine Treatments英文文献资料.docVIP

Journal of Behavioral and Brain Science, 2012, 2, 18-25 /10.4236/jbbs.2012.21003 Published Online February 2012 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/jbbs) Behaviour and Degenerative Changes in the Basal Forebrain Systems of Aged Rats (12 Months Old) after Levo-Acetyl-Carnitine Treatments Roberta Freddi , Piergiorgio Duca , Maurizio Mariotti , Ivana Gritti 1,2 1 1 1* 1 Department of Clinical Science-Luigi Sacco, School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milan, Milano, Italy Complex Structure-Anatomia Patologica, A.S.L.-VCO, Verbania, Italy 2 Email: Ivana.Grittti@unimi.it * Received June 30, 2011; revised November 22, 2011; accepted December 7, 2011 ABSTRACT One group of six male control rats [12 months old] and one group of six male rats of the same age, singularly main- tained in a cage, and treated with acetyl-L-carnitine-HCl [(gamma-trimethyl-beta-acetyl-butyrobetaine-HCl: Sigma-Tau code ST200 or ALCAR: 60 mg/kg/day[7]/po)] for six months were tested in the spatial learning/memory Morris maze- water task and for atrophy and cell loss in seven myelo- and cytostructurally defined basal forebrain (BF) cholinergic regions [Freddi et al., 2009]. Coronal sections 25μm thick were cut through the BF regions and processed every 200 μm for choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) immunohistochemistry. The ALCAR-treated rats had significantly shorter exit times on the Morris maze-water task test than the control rats (average ± SD 28.3 ± 12.4 s vs. 61.16 ± 4.67 s; t = 6.07, DOF = 10, P = 0.0001). Degenerative morphological changes in the BF ChAT-positive cells were observed in the sub- stantia innominata pars anterior of the control rats but not in the treated animals (P 0.05). In the BF, the counted and estimated average number of ChAT + cells in the 12-month-old ALCAR-treated rats (ChAT-ALCAR-12+ [Nos. 2,3,4])