Age-Related Deficits in Spatial Memory and Hippocampal Spines in Virgin, Female Fischer 344 Rats
Effects of aging on memory and brain morphology were examined in aged, 21-month-old, and young, 4-month-old, Fischer 344 female rats. Spatial memory was assessed using the object placement task, and dendritic spine density was determined on pyramidal neurons in the hippocampus following Golgi impreg...
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| Format: | Online |
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Hindawi Publishing Corporation
2011
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| Online Access: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3159305/ |
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pubmed-31593052011-08-25 Age-Related Deficits in Spatial Memory and Hippocampal Spines in Virgin, Female Fischer 344 Rats Luine, Victoria N. Wallace, Maureen E. Frankfurt, Maya Research Article Effects of aging on memory and brain morphology were examined in aged, 21-month-old, and young, 4-month-old, Fischer 344 female rats. Spatial memory was assessed using the object placement task, and dendritic spine density was determined on pyramidal neurons in the hippocampus following Golgi impregnation. Consistent with previous studies, aged females showed poorer object placement performance than young subjects. Young subjects significantly discriminated the location of objects with a 1.5-hour intertrial delay while aged subjects did not. Spine density of basal dendrites on CA1 pyramidal cells was 16% lower in the aged subjects as compared to the young subjects. No differences in spine density were found between young and aged subjects in basal dendrites of CA1 or in either dendritic field of CA3 pyramidal neurons. Thus, decreased hippocampal CA1 dendritic spine density in aged rats may contribute to poorer spatial memory as compared to young rats. The possibility that the neuroplastic changes observed in this study may pertain only to female subjects having had a specific set of life experiences is discussed. Different factors, such as reproductive status, diet, and handling may contribute to neuroplasticity of the brain during aging; however, this view requires further examination. Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2011 2011-08-18 /pmc/articles/PMC3159305/ /pubmed/21869884 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2011/316386 Text en Copyright © 2011 Victoria N. Luine et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| repository_type |
Open Access Journal |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
US National Center for Biotechnology Information |
| building |
NCBI PubMed |
| collection |
Online Access |
| language |
English |
| format |
Online |
| author |
Luine, Victoria N. Wallace, Maureen E. Frankfurt, Maya |
| spellingShingle |
Luine, Victoria N. Wallace, Maureen E. Frankfurt, Maya Age-Related Deficits in Spatial Memory and Hippocampal Spines in Virgin, Female Fischer 344 Rats |
| author_facet |
Luine, Victoria N. Wallace, Maureen E. Frankfurt, Maya |
| author_sort |
Luine, Victoria N. |
| title |
Age-Related Deficits in Spatial Memory and Hippocampal Spines in Virgin, Female Fischer 344 Rats |
| title_short |
Age-Related Deficits in Spatial Memory and Hippocampal Spines in Virgin, Female Fischer 344 Rats |
| title_full |
Age-Related Deficits in Spatial Memory and Hippocampal Spines in Virgin, Female Fischer 344 Rats |
| title_fullStr |
Age-Related Deficits in Spatial Memory and Hippocampal Spines in Virgin, Female Fischer 344 Rats |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Age-Related Deficits in Spatial Memory and Hippocampal Spines in Virgin, Female Fischer 344 Rats |
| title_sort |
age-related deficits in spatial memory and hippocampal spines in virgin, female fischer 344 rats |
| description |
Effects of aging on memory and brain morphology were examined in aged, 21-month-old, and young, 4-month-old, Fischer 344 female rats. Spatial memory was assessed using the object placement task, and dendritic spine density was determined on pyramidal neurons in the hippocampus following Golgi impregnation. Consistent with previous studies, aged females showed poorer object placement performance than young subjects. Young subjects significantly discriminated the location of objects with a 1.5-hour intertrial delay while aged subjects did not. Spine density of basal dendrites on CA1 pyramidal cells was 16% lower in the aged subjects as compared to the young subjects. No differences in spine density were found between young and aged subjects in basal dendrites of CA1 or in either dendritic field of CA3 pyramidal neurons. Thus, decreased hippocampal CA1 dendritic spine density in aged rats may contribute to poorer spatial memory as compared to young rats. The possibility that the neuroplastic changes observed in this study may pertain only to female subjects having had a specific set of life experiences is discussed. Different factors, such as reproductive status, diet, and handling may contribute to neuroplasticity of the brain during aging; however, this view requires further examination. |
| publisher |
Hindawi Publishing Corporation |
| publishDate |
2011 |
| url |
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3159305/ |
| _version_ |
1611471655290273792 |