title: Curcumin enhances neurogenesis and cognition in aged rats: implications for transcriptional interactions related to growth and synaptic plasticity.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Curcumin has been demonstrated to have many neuroprotective properties, including improvement of cognition in humans and neurogenesis in animals, yet the mechanism of such effects remains unclear.
  
  
  METHODS
  We assessed behavioural performance and hippocampal cell proliferation in aged rats after 6- and 12-week curcumin-fortified diets. Curcumin enhanced non-spatial and spatial memory, as well as dentate gyrate cell proliferation as compared to control diet rats. We also investigated underlying mechanistic pathways that might link curcumin treatment to increased cognition and neurogenesis via exon array analysis of cortical and hippocampal mRNA transcription. The results revealed a transcriptional network interaction of genes involved in neurotransmission, neuronal development, signal transduction, and metabolism in response to the curcumin treatment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results suggest a neurogenesis- and cognition-enhancing potential of prolonged curcumin treatment in aged rats, which may be due to its diverse effects on genes related to growth and plasticity.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics, Ministry of Education, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Suzhen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.forename: Qingwen
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.forename: E Siobhan
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Mitchell
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xiu
authors.forename: Yale
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.forename: Chunxia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Jyoti K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Tiwari
authors.forename: Yinghe
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Xiaohua
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Zheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhao
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects; D003071:Cognition / Q000187:drug effects*; D003474:Curcumin / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks / Q000187:drug effects; D006624:Hippocampus; D008568:Memory / Q000187:drug effects; D055495:Neurogenesis / Q000187:drug effects*; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000187:drug effects*; D018696:Neuroprotective Agents; D051381:Rats; D014158:Transcription, Genetic / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D018696:Neuroprotective Agents; D003474:Curcumin