Aged SOD overexpressing mice exhibit enhanced spatial memory while lacking hippocampal neurogenesis.
The recent finding that hippocampal slices from aged mice overexpressing the gene for superoxide dismutase (SOD) exhibit long-term potentiation (LTP) of reactivity to afferent stimulation that is significantly larger than that produced in aged wild-type (wt) mice has encouraged the exploration of the effects of reactive oxygen species (ROS) on learning in aged mice. In addition, young-adult and aged wt and SOD transgenic mice were used in an attempt to correlate adult neurogenesis with spatial learning. Aged wt and SOD mice exhibited a 90% reduction in doublecortin-labeled new dentate gyrus neurons as compared to young mice, with no significant difference between genotypes. In addition, aged SOD mice exhibited better performance than wt controls in both reference and working memory tasks in a water maze. These findings provide a behavioral measure to demonstrate that excessive production of H2O2 is beneficial in aged mice.
Kamsler
Ariel
A
Department of Neurobiology, The Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, Israel. kamsler@mit.edu
Avital
Avi
A
Greenberger
Varda
V
Segal
Menahem
M
D000375:Aging; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide / Q000494:pharmacology; D018782:Maze Learning; D008568:Memory; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008811:Mice, Inbred DBA; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D013037:Spatial Behavior; D013482:Superoxide Dismutase / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics*
D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide; D013482:Superoxide Dismutase