title: Injection of insulin amyloid fibrils in the hippocampus of male Wistar rats: report on memory impairment and formation of amyloid plaques.
abstract: Amyloid fibrils result from a particular type of protein aggregation, and have been linked with various disorders, including neurodegenerative ones. In the case of Alzheimer's disease, amyloid beta (abeta) fibrils are detected in patients' brain, in the amyloid plaques. These fibrils can be produced in vitro, and their injection into animals' brains generates an animal model of Alzheimer's disease. Based on the structural similarity of amyloid fibrils that are formed from different proteins, we hypothesized that injecting insulin amyloid fibrils into rats' brains could result in amyloid plaque formation. Fourteen male Wistar rats were divided into control and experimental groups (n = 7). The experimental group was bilaterally injected with insulin amyloid in the hippocampus. Seven days after injection, a shuttle box test was performed and the experimental group's memory was found to be impaired. Histological investigation of these rats' brain showed the formation of amyloid plaques in the hippocampus. A limited test has provided preliminary evidence for the stability of these plaques up to 35 days. Further complementary studies are required to fully validate the proposed procedure, which is simple and relatively low cost, and could be suggested as an alternative to models generated with abeta fibrils.
authors: Biosensor Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Molecular-Cellular Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Shariati Hospital, North Kargar Avenue, 1411413137, Tehran, Iran.
authors: Raheleh
authors: R
authors: Kheirbakhsh
authors: Maryam
authors: M
authors: Chinisaz
authors: Saeed
authors: S
authors: Khodayari
authors: Saeid
authors: S
authors: Amanpour
authors: Ahmad-Reza
authors: AR
authors: Dehpour
authors: Ahad
authors: A
authors: Muhammadnejad
authors: Bagher
authors: B
authors: Larijani
authors: Azadeh
authors: A
authors: Ebrahim-Habibi
mesh_terms: D000682:Amyloid / Q000633:toxicity*; D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides / Q000378:metabolism*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000187:drug effects; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000187:drug effects*; D007328:Insulin / Q000633:toxicity*; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000139:chemically induced*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000187:drug effects; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D000682:Amyloid; D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides; D007328:Insulin