title: Galantamine rescues lead-impaired synaptic plasticity in rat dentate gyrus.
abstract: Chronic lead exposure causes a variety of impairments in learning and memory and cognitive function. Synaptic plasticity in hippocampus is an extensively studied cellular model of learning and memory, which includes long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) in two forms. Depotentiation (DP) is another form of synaptic plasticity. Previous studies show that chronic lead exposure can damage the induction of LTP/LTD in hippocampal CA1 and dentate gyrus (DG) areas. In the present study, we investigated the repair and protection on lead-caused synaptic plasticity impairment by galantamine, using field potential recording on chronic lead exposure rats. The results showed that chronic lead exposure impaired LTP/DP induction in DG area of the hippocampus, and galantamine caused a significant increase on the amplitudes of LTP/DP of lead-exposed rats, but only a small increase in non-exposed group. These results suggest that galantamine could reverse the lead-induced impairments of synaptic plasticity in rats and might be an effective medicine to cure the cognitive deficits induced by lead.
authors.affiliation: Neurotoxicology Lab, School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230027, PR China.
authors.forename: Yun-yun
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Da-Miao
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Di-Yun
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Ruan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002800:Cholinesterase Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology*; D018891:Dentate Gyrus / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology; D004558:Electric Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D005702:Galantamine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D007854:Lead / Q000633:toxicity*; D020263:Lead Poisoning, Nervous System / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013569:Synapses / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D002800:Cholinesterase Inhibitors; D005702:Galantamine; D007854:Lead