Department of Food Science and Technology, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Chungnam National University, Daejon 305-764, Republic of Korea.
Brain Res. 2011 Mar 25;1382:147-54. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2011.01.051. Epub 2011 Jan 26.
Ginsenoside Rb1 (Rb1) is known to improve learning and memory in hippocampus-dependent tasks. However, the cellular mechanism remains unknown. Cell genesis in hippocampus is involved in spatial learning and memory. In the present study, Rb1 was orally administrated to adult rats for 30days. The behavioral training tests indicated that Rb1 improved spatial cognitive performance of rats in Morris water maze (MWM). Furthermore, we investigated the effects of Rb1 on cell genesis in adult rats' hippocampus, using thymidine analog bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) as a marker for dividing cells. It has been shown that hippocampal cell genesis can be influenced by several factors such as learning and exercise. In order to avoid the effects of the interfering factors, only the rats treated with Rb1 without training in MWM were used to investigate cell genesis in hippocampus. When BrdU was given to the rats 30days prior to being killed, it was shown that oral administration of Rb1 significantly increased cell survival in dentate gyrus and hippocampal subregion CA3. However, when BrdU was injected 2h prior to sacrifice, the results indicated that Rb1 had no significant influence on cell proliferation in the hippocampal subregions. Thus, an increase of cell survival in hippocampus stimulated by Rb1 may be one of the mechanisms by which ginseng facilitates spatial learning and memory. Our study also indicates that Rb1 may be developed as a therapeutic agent for patients with memory impairment.
人参皂苷 Rb1（Rb1）已知可改善海马依赖性任务中的学习和记忆。然而，其细胞机制仍不清楚。海马中的细胞发生参与空间学习和记忆。在本研究中，Rb1 经口给予成年大鼠 30 天。行为训练测试表明，Rb1 改善了大鼠在 Morris 水迷宫（MWM）中的空间认知表现。此外，我们研究了 Rb1 对成年大鼠海马中细胞发生的影响，使用胸苷类似物溴脱氧尿苷（BrdU）作为分裂细胞的标志物。已经表明，海马中的细胞发生可以受到学习和运动等多种因素的影响。为了避免干扰因素的影响，仅使用未在 MWM 中接受训练的接受 Rb1 治疗的大鼠来研究海马中的细胞发生。当 BrdU 在处死前 30 天给予大鼠时，结果表明，Rb1 的口服给药显著增加了齿状回和海马亚区 CA3 中的细胞存活。然而，当 BrdU 在处死前 2 小时注射时，结果表明 Rb1 对海马亚区的细胞增殖没有显著影响。因此，Rb1 刺激海马中细胞存活的增加可能是人参促进空间学习和记忆的机制之一。我们的研究还表明，Rb1 可能被开发为治疗记忆障碍患者的药物。
