The Effect of Scopolamine on Avoidance Memory and Hippocampal Neurons in Male Wistar Rats
Introduction: Cholinergic systems are involved in learning and memory. Scopolamine, a muscarinic acetylcholine receptor antagonist, is used as a standard/ reference drug for inducing cognitive deficits in healthy humans and animals. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of scopolamin...
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Iran University of Medical Sciences
2011-10-01
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Series: | Basic and Clinical Neuroscience |
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Online Access: | http://bcn.iums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1-82&slc_lang=en&sid=1 |
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author | Saba Seifhosseini Mehrdad Jahanshahi Ali Moghimi Nasrin-Sadat Aazami |
author_facet | Saba Seifhosseini Mehrdad Jahanshahi Ali Moghimi Nasrin-Sadat Aazami |
author_sort | Saba Seifhosseini |
collection | DOAJ |
description | Introduction: Cholinergic systems are involved in learning and memory. Scopolamine, a muscarinic acetylcholine receptor antagonist, is used as a standard/ reference drug for inducing cognitive deficits in healthy humans and animals. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of scopolamine on avoidance memory and number of neurons in rat’s hippocampus. . Methods: Thirty five male albino Wistar rats (200 ± 20 g) were used in this study. The rats were divided randomly into five groups: control group (healthy samples), sham (saline) and 3 experimental groups 0.2, 0.5 and 1 mg/kg (intraperitoneally - single dose of Scopolamine). Animals were tested by passive avoidance method (shuttle box). After one week, a memory test was taken from rats. Finally, with dissection of the rats' brains and tissue operations, neurons were stained with cresyl violet. Photographs of the samples in hippocampal areas were prepared, and neurons were counted. Results: Our results showed that the number of neurons in all experimental groups was lower than that in the control group. The highest decrease in number of neurons was shown in response to 1 mg/kg scopolamine compared to the control group in all regions of hippocampus. Also, we found that in comparison to the saline-treated animals, the injection of scopolamine to rats after training, caused memory destruction. Discussion: We concluded that memory impairment-induced by scopolamine is probably associated with neuronal loss and this decrease was dose dependent. |
first_indexed | 2024-03-07T17:35:56Z |
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institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
issn | 2008-126X 2228-7442 |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-03-07T17:35:56Z |
publishDate | 2011-10-01 |
publisher | Iran University of Medical Sciences |
record_format | Article |
series | Basic and Clinical Neuroscience |
spelling | doaj.art-5c682a3a2fb048eea099e5ae0c19ac342024-03-02T16:44:57ZengIran University of Medical SciencesBasic and Clinical Neuroscience2008-126X2228-74422011-10-0131915The Effect of Scopolamine on Avoidance Memory and Hippocampal Neurons in Male Wistar RatsSaba Seifhosseini0Mehrdad Jahanshahi1Ali Moghimi2Nasrin-Sadat Aazami3 Introduction: Cholinergic systems are involved in learning and memory. Scopolamine, a muscarinic acetylcholine receptor antagonist, is used as a standard/ reference drug for inducing cognitive deficits in healthy humans and animals. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of scopolamine on avoidance memory and number of neurons in rat’s hippocampus. . Methods: Thirty five male albino Wistar rats (200 ± 20 g) were used in this study. The rats were divided randomly into five groups: control group (healthy samples), sham (saline) and 3 experimental groups 0.2, 0.5 and 1 mg/kg (intraperitoneally - single dose of Scopolamine). Animals were tested by passive avoidance method (shuttle box). After one week, a memory test was taken from rats. Finally, with dissection of the rats' brains and tissue operations, neurons were stained with cresyl violet. Photographs of the samples in hippocampal areas were prepared, and neurons were counted. Results: Our results showed that the number of neurons in all experimental groups was lower than that in the control group. The highest decrease in number of neurons was shown in response to 1 mg/kg scopolamine compared to the control group in all regions of hippocampus. Also, we found that in comparison to the saline-treated animals, the injection of scopolamine to rats after training, caused memory destruction. Discussion: We concluded that memory impairment-induced by scopolamine is probably associated with neuronal loss and this decrease was dose dependent.http://bcn.iums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1-82&slc_lang=en&sid=1ScopolamineHippocampusNeuronsPassive Avoidance Memory |
spellingShingle | Saba Seifhosseini Mehrdad Jahanshahi Ali Moghimi Nasrin-Sadat Aazami The Effect of Scopolamine on Avoidance Memory and Hippocampal Neurons in Male Wistar Rats Basic and Clinical Neuroscience Scopolamine Hippocampus Neurons Passive Avoidance Memory |
title | The Effect of Scopolamine on Avoidance Memory and Hippocampal Neurons in Male Wistar Rats |
title_full | The Effect of Scopolamine on Avoidance Memory and Hippocampal Neurons in Male Wistar Rats |
title_fullStr | The Effect of Scopolamine on Avoidance Memory and Hippocampal Neurons in Male Wistar Rats |
title_full_unstemmed | The Effect of Scopolamine on Avoidance Memory and Hippocampal Neurons in Male Wistar Rats |
title_short | The Effect of Scopolamine on Avoidance Memory and Hippocampal Neurons in Male Wistar Rats |
title_sort | effect of scopolamine on avoidance memory and hippocampal neurons in male wistar rats |
topic | Scopolamine Hippocampus Neurons Passive Avoidance Memory |
url | http://bcn.iums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1-82&slc_lang=en&sid=1 |
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