title: Effects of age and sex on the water maze performance and hippocampal cholinergic fibers in rats.
abstract: We have examined if age-related deterioration of spatial memory and cholinergic innervation of the dentate gyrus is gender-specific. Aging progressively affected the performance of male and female rats in place discrimination version of the water maze task. On repeated acquisition task, only old males, but not old females, were significantly impaired relative to young and adult animals of both sexes. In parallel, we found that the age-associated reduction of the density of cholinergic fibers in the dentate gyrus was significantly more profound in old males than in age-matched females. These results suggest that, although male and female rats have an identical pattern of reference memory decline, impairment of the working memory and deterioration of the hippocampal cholinergic system are slower to develop in females than in males.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Porto Medical School, Portugal.
authors.forename: N V
authors.initials: NV
authors.lastname: Lukoyanov
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Andrade
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dulce Madeira
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Paula-Barbosa
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D002795:Choline O-Acetyltransferase / Q000378:metabolism; D018891:Dentate Gyrus / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D009412:Nerve Fibers / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D002795:Choline O-Acetyltransferase