The Effects of Puerariae Flos on Stress-induced Deficits of Learning and Memory in Ovariectomized Female Rats

Hyun-Jung Park; Seung-Moo Han; Won Ju Yoon; Kyung-Soo Kim; Insop Shim

doi:10.4196/kjpp.2009.13.2.85

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Park, Han, Yoon, Kim, and Shim: The Effects of Puerariae Flos on Stress-induced Deficits of Learning and Memory in Ovariectomized Female Rats

Original Article

Korean J Physiol Pharmacol 2009;13(2):85-89.

Published online: 17 April 2009

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4196/kjpp.2009.13.2.85

The Effects of Puerariae Flos on Stress-induced Deficits of Learning and Memory in Ovariectomized Female Rats

Hyun-Jung Park^1,^†, Seung-Moo Han^2,^†, Won Ju Yoon³, Kyung-Soo Kim¹, Insop Shim^1,^∗

¹Department of Integrative Medicine, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul 137-701, Korea

²Department of Biomedical Engineering, Kyung Hee University, Suwon 446-701, Korea

³Department of Pharmaceuticaals and Health Foods, Lotte R&D Center, Seoul 150-866, Korea

^∗Corresponding to: Insop Shim, Department of Integrative Medicine, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, 505, Banpo-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul 137-701, Korea. (Tel) 82-2-590-2971, (Fax) 82-2-592-6359, (E-mail) ishim@catholic.ac.kr

^† Two authors contributed equally to this work.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Puerariae flos (PF) is a traditional oriental medicinal plant and has clinically been prescribed for a long time. The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of PF on repeated stress-induced alterations of learning and memory on a Morris water maze (MWM) test in ovariectomized (OVX) female rats. The changes in the reactivity of the cholinergic system were assessed by measuring the immunoreactive neurons of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) in the hippocampus after behavioral testing. The female rats were randomly divided into four groups: the nonoperated and nonstressed group (normal), the sham-operated and stressed group (control), the ovariectomized and stressed group (OS), and the ovariectomized, stressed and PF treated group (OSF). Rats were exposed to immobilization stress (IMO) for 14 d (2 h/d), and PF (400 mg/kg, p.o.) was administered 30 min before IMO stress. Results showed that treatments with PF caused significant reversals of the stress-induced deficits in learning and memory on a spatial memory task, and also increased the ChAT immunoreactivities. In conclusion, administration of PF improved spatial learning and memory in OVX rats, and PF may be useful for the treatment of postmenopausal-related dementia.

Keywords: Puerariae flos, Ovariectomy, Morris water maze, Choline acetyltransferase, Immobilization stress

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Fig. 1.

Changes of the latency time during 6 d of the acquisition test in the Morris water maze test. Repeated measures of ANOVA of swimming time among the groups, followed by LSD test. Each value represents mean±S.E.M.

Fig. 2.

The latency time on the 7^th day of the retention test in the Morris water maze test. The results of retention test were analyzed by performing separate measures of one-way ANOVA of swimming time among the groups, followed by LSD test. Each value represents mean±S.E.M. ^#p<0.05 and ^##p<0.01 compared to OS.

Fig. 3.

The number of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) immunostained nuclei in the different hippocampal areas of the experimental groups after 7 d of the water maze test. The results of ChAT-reactivity were analyzed by performing separate one-way ANOVA of neurons among the groups, followed by LSD test. Each value represents mean±S.E.M. ∗∗∗p<0.01 compared to normal and ^##p<0.01, ^###p<0.001 compared to OS.

Fig. 4.

Photographs showing the distribution of ChAT-immunoreactive cells in the hippocampus of Normal group (A), Control group (B), OS group (C), OSF group (D). Sections were cut coronally at 30 μm and the scale bar represents 200 μm (200×200).

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