title: Mori folium and mori fructus mixture attenuates high-fat diet-induced cognitive deficits in mice.
abstract: Obesity has become a global health problem, contributing to various diseases including diabetes, hypertension, cancer, and dementia. Increasing evidence suggests that obesity can also cause neuronal damage, long-term memory loss, and cognitive impairment. The leaves and the fruits of Morus alba L., containing active phytochemicals, have been shown to possess antiobesity and hypolipidemic properties. Thus, in the present study, we assessed their effects on cognitive functioning in mice fed a high-fat diet by performing immunohistochemistry, using antibodies against c-Fos, synaptophysin, and postsynaptic density protein 95 and a behavioral test. C57BL/6 mice fed a high-fat diet for 21 weeks exhibited increased body weight, but mice coadministered an optimized Mori Folium and Mori Fructus extract mixture (2 : 1; MFE) for the final 12 weeks exhibited significant body weight loss. Additionally, obese mice exhibited not only reduced neural activity, but also decreased presynaptic and postsynaptic activities, while MFE-treated mice exhibited recovery of these activities. Finally, cognitive deficits induced by the high-fat diet were recovered by cotreatment with MFE in the novel object recognition test. Our findings suggest that the antiobesity effects of MFE resulted in recovery of the cognitive deficits induced by the high-fat diet by regulation of neural and synaptic activities.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oriental Pharmaceutical Science, College of Pharmacy, Kyung Hee University, 26 Kyungheedae-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 130-701, Republic of Korea ; Department of Life and Nanopharmaceutical Science, College of Pharmacy, Kyung Hee University, 26 Kyungheedae-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 130-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Hyo Geun
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-0999-8706
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Oriental Pharmaceutical Science, College of Pharmacy, Kyung Hee University, 26 Kyungheedae-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 130-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Hyun Uk
authors.initials: HU
authors.lastname: Jeong
authors.affiliation: Department of Life and Nanopharmaceutical Science, College of Pharmacy, Kyung Hee University, 26 Kyungheedae-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 130-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Gunhyuk
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Department of Herbal Pharmacology, College of Korean Medicine, Kyung Hee University, 26 Kyungheedae-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 130-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Hocheol
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Food and Nutrition, Kyung Hee University, 26 Kyungheedae-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 130-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Yunsook
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.affiliation: Department of Oriental Pharmaceutical Science, College of Pharmacy, Kyung Hee University, 26 Kyungheedae-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 130-701, Republic of Korea ; Department of Life and Nanopharmaceutical Science, College of Pharmacy, Kyung Hee University, 26 Kyungheedae-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 130-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Myung Sook
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Oh