Flumazenil improves active avoidance performance in aging NZB/BlNJ and C57BL/6NNia mice.
C57BL/6NNia and autoimmune NZB/BlNJ mice aged 12-14 months were tested for acquisition and retention of an active avoidance response following vehicle or flumazenil (40 mg/kg), a benzodiazepine antagonist. Acquisition and retention performance was improved in flumazenil-treated mice when compared with vehicle-treated mice, although the degree of improvement varied with the level of performance in vehicle-treated mice of each strain. The NZB/BlNJ mice, which generally performed more poorly than the C57BL/6NNia mice, showed the greater improvements following flumazenil. These results suggest that antagonism of benzodiazepine receptors leads to improved learning and/or memory performance in mice with spontaneous age-associated deficits.
Lal
H
H
Department of Pharmacology, Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine, Fort Worth 76107-2690.
Forster
M J
MJ
D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000187:drug effects*; D005442:Flumazenil / Q000494:pharmacology*; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D011963:Receptors, GABA-A / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D013045:Species Specificity
D011963:Receptors, GABA-A; D005442:Flumazenil