Arendash G W, Sanberg P R, Sengstock G J
Department of Biology, University of South Florida, Tampa 33620, USA.
Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 1995 Nov;52(3):517-23. doi: 10.1016/0091-3057(95)00119-h.
The cognitive performance of young adult (2-3-month-old) and aged (22-24 month-old) rats was characterized in one of three different behavioral tasks, and the ability of daily nicotine treatment to alleviate age-related learning and memory deficits was evaluated. Aged rats received an IP injection of either nicotine (0.2 mg/kg) or saline vehicle 15 min prior to daily testing; young control rats received saline vehicle injections. Compared to young controls, aged control rats were severely impaired in the acquisition of one-way active avoidance pole jumping over 12 days of testing. Nicotine pretreatment of similar aged rats markedly improved overall learning and the rate of learning compared to aged controls. In Lashley III maze performance, aged control rats made substantially more alternation errors than young controls; however, aged rats pretreated with nicotine made significantly fewer errors over the entire 20-day test period compared to aged controls. During 30 days of 17-arm radial maze testing, aged control animals were severely impaired in general learning and reference (long-term) memory, but only mildly impaired in working (short-term) memory. Nicotine pretreatment of similar aged rats induced a substantial enhancement in overall learning and reference memory, but did not affect working memory. These results indicate that chronic nicotine administration can improve the impaired learning/memory abilities of aged rats in several tasks, and suggest that stimulation of central nicotinic receptors may be of considerable therapeutic value to treat age-related memory impairment.
对年轻成年（2 - 3个月大）和老年（22 - 24个月大）大鼠的认知能力在三种不同行为任务之一中进行了表征，并评估了每日尼古丁治疗减轻与年龄相关的学习和记忆缺陷的能力。在每日测试前15分钟，老年大鼠腹腔注射尼古丁（0.2毫克/千克）或生理盐水；年轻对照大鼠注射生理盐水。与年轻对照相比，老年对照大鼠在为期12天的单向主动回避跳杆测试中的习得能力严重受损。与老年对照相比，对类似年龄的大鼠进行尼古丁预处理显著改善了总体学习能力和学习速度。在拉什利三世迷宫测试中，老年对照大鼠的交替错误明显多于年轻对照；然而，与老年对照相比，用尼古丁预处理的老年大鼠在整个20天测试期内的错误明显减少。在为期30天的17臂放射状迷宫测试中，老年对照动物在一般学习和参考（长期）记忆方面严重受损，但在工作（短期）记忆方面仅轻度受损。对类似年龄的大鼠进行尼古丁预处理可显著增强总体学习和参考记忆，但不影响工作记忆。这些结果表明，长期给予尼古丁可以改善老年大鼠在多项任务中受损的学习/记忆能力，并表明刺激中枢烟碱受体可能对治疗与年龄相关的记忆损害具有相当大的治疗价值。
