Department of Biology, Faculty of Natural Science, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran.
Research Center for Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
Turk J Med Sci. 2016 Nov 17;46(5):1573-1578. doi: 10.3906/sag-1503-43.
BACKGROUND/AIM: Boswellia from the family Burseraceae has been proposed for prevention of amnesia; however, the molecular mechanism by which it affects memory is not clear. To reveal the potential molecular mechanism, the effects of boswellia on the expression of two memory related genes, CREB and BDNF, were investigated.
Twenty-one male rats were randomly divided into 3 groups (n = 7): the control group received distilled water and the treatment groups received two doses of aqueous extract of Boswellia serrata gum resin (boswellia) (50 and 100 mg/kg) every day for 4 weeks. The animals were tested by the Morris water maze (MWM) and their hippocampus was isolated. Expression of CREB and BDNF genes was analyzed by Q-RT-PCR.
The MWM test showed improvement in spatial learning and memory in both treatment groups. Gene expression analysis revealed a significant increase in BDNF but not CREB expression in rats treated with both 50 and 100 mg/kg doses in comparison with the control group.
Although boswellia exerts its effects on memory formation at least partly by affecting the expression of BDNF, the results imply that boswellia probably affects memory via another BDNF-related pathway than the BDNF-CREB-BDNF cycle.
背景/目的：来自豆科植物的乳香被提议用于预防健忘症；然而，它影响记忆的分子机制尚不清楚。为了揭示潜在的分子机制，研究了乳香对两种与记忆相关的基因 CREB 和 BDNF 的表达的影响。
21 只雄性大鼠被随机分为 3 组（n = 7）：对照组给予蒸馏水，治疗组每天给予两种剂量的乳香树胶树脂（乳香）水提取物（50 和 100mg/kg），持续 4 周。通过 Morris 水迷宫（MWM）测试动物，并分离其海马体。通过 Q-RT-PCR 分析 CREB 和 BDNF 基因的表达。
MWM 测试显示，两种治疗组的空间学习和记忆能力均有所提高。基因表达分析显示，与对照组相比，50 和 100mg/kg 剂量组大鼠的 BDNF 表达显著增加，但 CREB 表达没有增加。
尽管乳香通过影响 BDNF 的表达对记忆形成产生影响，但结果表明，乳香可能通过与 BDNF-CREB-BDNF 循环不同的 BDNF 相关途径影响记忆。
