title: Age-related effects of diazepam on retention of inhibitory avoidance and shuttle avoidance tasks in rats.
abstract: We investigated the effect of diazepam on memory of 30 days-old and 60-70 days-old female Wistar rats, using two behavioral tasks: step-down inhibitory avoidance (IA) and shuttle avoidance (SA). Diazepam (0.2, 1.0 or 5.0 mg/kg) or its vehicle were given i.p., 60 min prior to the training session. Training-test interval was 24 h. Diazepam impaired the retention of IA in 30 days-old rats at the three doses used, while retention of SA was not impaired by any dose. In the 60-70 days-old animals, diazepam at the dose of 0.2 mg/kg was facilitatory in IA and had no effect on SA, while doses of 1.0 mg/kg and 5.0 mg/kg impaired retention of both tasks. We suggest that these age-dependent effects of diazepam on memory of IA and SA could be related to developmental changes in brain GABAA receptors.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Bioquímica, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Roesler
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Quevedo
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Da Silva
authors.forename: M B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Ferreira
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Quillfeldt
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D014151:Anti-Anxiety Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000187:drug effects*; D003975:Diazepam / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005260:Female; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012153:Retention, Psychology / Q000187:drug effects*
chemical_list: D014151:Anti-Anxiety Agents; D003975:Diazepam