Department of Physiology, School of Biology, College of Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
Behav Brain Res. 2010 Mar 17;208(1):30-7. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2009.11.004. Epub 2009 Nov 10.
The hippocampus is essentially involved in learning and memory, and is known to be a target for androgen actions. As neuron-astrocyte interactions play a crucial role during development and in the adult brain, it is thought that astrocytes support learning and memory through specific mechanisms. In this study, the effect of testosterone-induced impairment of acquisition and retrieval of long-term memory, on the number of astrocytes was studied. Adult male albino Wistar rats were bilaterally cannulated into the CA1 region and received 80 microg/0.5 microl of testosterone enanthate dissolved in DMSO as vehicle. In trained groups injection was done 30 min before training. Our results showed that pre-training administration of testosterone increased escape latency and the traveled distance, as compared to intact or DMSO administered (sham-operated) counterparts. Testosterone administration also increased the number of astrocytes in rats, compared to sham-operated and intact animals in both trained and non-trained groups. We have also found that spatial learning could increase the number of astrocytes in the hippocampus as a center of long-term learning and memory and recall. It is concluded that, testosterone-induced impairment in learning and memory, causes an increase in the number of astrocytes in the CA1 region of rat hippocampus.
海马体主要参与学习和记忆，并且已知是雄激素作用的靶标。由于神经元-星形胶质细胞相互作用在发育过程中和成年大脑中起着至关重要的作用，因此人们认为星形胶质细胞通过特定的机制支持学习和记忆。在这项研究中，研究了睾丸激素诱导的长期记忆获得和检索损伤对星形胶质细胞数量的影响。成年雄性白化 Wistar 大鼠双侧被植入 CA1 区，并接受了 80 微克/0.5 微升溶于 DMSO 的睾酮 enanthate 作为载体的注射。在训练组中，在训练前 30 分钟进行注射。我们的结果表明，与完整或接受 DMSO （假手术）处理的对照组相比，预训练给药的睾丸激素增加了逃避潜伏期和行驶距离。与假手术和完整动物相比，在训练和未训练组中，睾丸激素给药也增加了大鼠海马体中星形胶质细胞的数量。我们还发现，空间学习可以增加海马体中星形胶质细胞的数量，因为海马体是长期学习和记忆以及回忆的中心。结论是，睾丸激素诱导的学习和记忆损伤导致大鼠海马体 CA1 区星形胶质细胞数量增加。
