College of Life Sciences and Key Lab of Bioactive Materials, Ministry of Education, Tianjin, 300071, PR China.
Toxicol Lett. 2011 Oct 30;206(3):276-80. doi: 10.1016/j.toxlet.2011.08.009. Epub 2011 Aug 22.
Many studies reported that infants and animals were affected by food containing melamine, and the renal pathology was the main manifestation in intoxicated case. Our previous studies showed that melamine could impair hippocampal function and inhibited differentiated PC12 cell proliferation in vitro. The present study aimed to examine the effect on hippocampus and the possible mechanism induced by melamine in vivo. To address the hypothesis that melamine would impair the hippocampal function in vivo and then induce cognitive deficits, male Wistar rats were used to establish an animal model and melamine administered at a dose of 300 mgkg/day for 4 weeks. Morris water maze (MWM) test was employed to evaluate the learning and memory. The long term potentiation (LTP) from Schaffer collaterals to CA1 region in the hippocampus was recorded. The result of MWM test showed that there were significant deficits of learning and memory induced by melamine. LTP test presented that field excitatory postsynaptic potentials (fEPSPs) slopes were significantly lower in melamine group compared to that in control group. In conclusion, melamine had a toxic influence on hippocampus, which induced the learning and memory deficits. It suggested that the potential mechanism was associated with impairments of synaptic plasticity.
许多研究报道称，婴儿和动物会受到含有三聚氰胺的食物的影响，中毒病例的主要表现是肾脏病理变化。我们之前的研究表明，三聚氰胺可以损害海马功能，并抑制体外分化的 PC12 细胞增殖。本研究旨在体内研究三聚氰胺对海马的影响及其可能的机制。为了验证三聚氰胺会损害体内海马功能，从而导致认知障碍的假设，本研究使用雄性 Wistar 大鼠建立了动物模型，并给予三聚氰胺剂量为 300mg/kg/天，持续 4 周。采用 Morris 水迷宫（MWM）测试评估学习和记忆能力。记录海马体中 Schaffer 侧枝到 CA1 区域的长时程增强（LTP）。MWM 测试结果表明，三聚氰胺诱导了明显的学习和记忆缺陷。LTP 测试表明，三聚氰胺组的场兴奋性突触后电位（fEPSPs）斜率明显低于对照组。总之，三聚氰胺对海马体有毒性影响，导致学习和记忆缺陷。这表明潜在的机制与突触可塑性的损害有关。
