Tetrahydroaminoacridine improves passive avoidance retention defects induced by aging and medial septal lesion but not by fimbria-fornix lesion.
The present study examines whether tetrahydroaminoacridine (THA) can improve the deterioration in passive avoidance (PA) retention performance induced by medial septal (MS) and fimbria-fornix (FF) lesions in young rats or by aging. Retention of young MS-lesioned rats was improved by pretraining injection of THA at 3 mg/kg, but not by THA at 1 mg/kg or by either of the posttraining doses of THA (1 and 3 mg/kg). Pretraining injections of THA at 1 or 3 mg/kg had no effect on the PA retention performance of FF-lesioned rats. Age-induced PA failure was alleviated by pretraining administration of THA at 1 and 3 mg/kg. Posttraining injections of THA (1 or 3 mg/kg) had no effect on PA retention performance of aged rats. These results demonstrate that 1) THA may improve hippocampal cholinergic denervation-induced functional deficits and 2) some of the age-related PA deficits may be due to a cholinergic deficit and can be reversed with THA.
Riekkinen
P
P
Department of Neurology, University of Kuopio, Finland.
Riekkinen
M
M
Lahtinen
H
H
Sirviö
J
J
Valjakka
A
A
Riekkinen
P
P
D000375:Aging; D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000187:drug effects*; D002795:Choline O-Acetyltransferase / Q000032:analysis; D002800:Cholinesterase Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000187:drug effects*; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000187:drug effects; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D009928:Organ Specificity; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013619:Tacrine / Q000494:pharmacology*
D002800:Cholinesterase Inhibitors; D013619:Tacrine; D002795:Choline O-Acetyltransferase