Wu Dong-mei, Lu Jun, Zheng Yuan-lin, Zhou Zhong, Shan Qun, Ma Dai-fu
Key Laboratory for Biotechnology on Medicinal Plants of Jiangsu Province, School of Life Science, Xuzhou Normal University, No. 101 Shanghai Road, Xuzhou 221116, Jiangsu Province, PR China.
Neurobiol Learn Mem. 2008 Jul;90(1):19-27. doi: 10.1016/j.nlm.2008.01.010. Epub 2008 Mar 7.
Purple sweet potato color (PSPC), a class of naturally occurring anthocyanins used to color food (E163), has been reported to possess a variety of biological activities, including anti-oxidant, anti-tumor, and anti-inflammatory. The effect of PSPC on the spatial learning and memory of mice treated with d-galactose (d-gal) was evaluated by the Morris water maze; d-gal-treated mice had decreased performance compared with mice in the vehicle and PSPC groups, while the PSPC+d-gal group showed significantly shortened escape latency to platform, increased swimming speed, more target quadrant search time and more platform crossings as compared with the d-gal group. Brain functions, such as memory formation and recovery of function after injury, depend on proper regulation of the expression levels of the pre- and post-synaptic proteins. We investigated the expression of four pre-synaptic proteins (growth-associated protein-43, synapsin-I, synaptophysin, and synaptotagmin) and two post-synaptic proteins (post-synaptic density protein-95 and Ca(2+)/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II) in the hippocampus and cerebral cortex, respectively, in response to different treatments. Western blotting analysis showed that there were significant decreases in the expression of these representative synaptic proteins in the hippocampus and cerebral cortex of d-gal-treated mice. Interestingly, these decreased expression levels of synaptic proteins could be reversed by PSPC. The levels of expression of these representative synaptic proteins in mice treated with PSPC alone were not significantly different from those in untreated mice. The results of this study suggested that memory impairment and synaptic protein loss in d-gal-treated mice may be improved by treatment with PSPC.
紫薯色素（PSPC）是一类用于食品着色的天然花青素（E163），据报道具有多种生物活性，包括抗氧化、抗肿瘤和抗炎作用。通过莫里斯水迷宫评估了PSPC对用D-半乳糖（D-gal）处理的小鼠空间学习和记忆的影响；与载体组和PSPC组的小鼠相比，D-gal处理的小鼠表现下降，而与D-gal组相比，PSPC + D-gal组显示出显著缩短的到达平台的逃避潜伏期、增加的游泳速度、更多的目标象限搜索时间和更多的穿越平台次数。大脑功能，如记忆形成和损伤后功能恢复，取决于突触前和突触后蛋白表达水平的适当调节。我们分别研究了不同处理后海马体和大脑皮层中四种突触前蛋白（生长相关蛋白-43、突触素-I、突触小泡蛋白和突触结合蛋白）和两种突触后蛋白（突触后致密蛋白-95和钙/钙调蛋白依赖性蛋白激酶II）的表达。蛋白质印迹分析表明，D-gal处理的小鼠海马体和大脑皮层中这些代表性突触蛋白的表达显著降低。有趣的是，这些突触蛋白表达水平的降低可以被PSPC逆转。单独用PSPC处理的小鼠中这些代表性突触蛋白的表达水平与未处理小鼠的表达水平没有显著差异。这项研究结果表明，用PSPC治疗可能改善D-gal处理的小鼠的记忆障碍和突触蛋白丢失。
