Piedrafita Blanca, Cauli Omar, Montoliu Carmina, Felipo Vicente
Laboratory of Neurobiology, Centro de Investigación Príncipe Felipe, Valencia, Spain.
Learn Mem. 2007 Apr 5;14(4):254-8. doi: 10.1101/lm.541307. Print 2007 Apr.
Aging is associated with cognitive impairment, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. We have recently reported that the ability of rats to learn a Y-maze conditional discrimination task depends on the function of the glutamate-nitric oxide-cGMP pathway in brain. The aims of the present work were to assess whether the ability of rats to learn this task decreases with age and whether this reduction is associated with a decreased function of the glutamate-nitric oxide-cGMP pathway in brain in vivo, as analyzed by microdialysis in freely moving rats. We show that 7-mo-old rats need significantly more (192 +/- 64%) trials than do 3-mo-old rats to learn the Y-maze task. Moreover, the function of the glutamate-nitric oxide-cGMP pathway is reduced by 60 +/- 23% in 7-mo-old rats compared with 3-mo-old rats. The results reported support the idea that the reduction in the ability to learn the Y-maze task (and likely other types of learning) of mature compared with young rats would be a consequence of reduced function of the glutamate-nitric oxide-cGMP pathway.
衰老与认知障碍相关，但潜在机制仍不清楚。我们最近报道，大鼠学习Y迷宫条件辨别任务的能力取决于大脑中谷氨酸-一氧化氮-cGMP通路的功能。本研究的目的是评估大鼠学习该任务的能力是否随年龄增长而下降，以及这种下降是否与自由活动大鼠体内通过微透析分析的大脑中谷氨酸-一氧化氮-cGMP通路功能降低有关。我们发现，7月龄大鼠学习Y迷宫任务所需的试验次数比3月龄大鼠显著多（192±64%）。此外，与3月龄大鼠相比，7月龄大鼠中谷氨酸-一氧化氮-cGMP通路的功能降低了60±23%。所报道的结果支持这样一种观点，即与年轻大鼠相比，成熟大鼠学习Y迷宫任务（可能还有其他类型的学习）的能力下降是谷氨酸-一氧化氮-cGMP通路功能降低的结果。
