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Journal ArticleDOI

Amelioration of cholinergic neuron atrophy and spatial memory impairment in aged rats by nerve growth factor.

TLDR
Continuous intracerebral infusion of NGF over a period of four weeks can partly reverse the cholinergic cell body atrophy and improve retention of a spatial memory task in behaviourally impaired aged rats.
Abstract
In aged rodents, impairments in learning and memory have been associated with an age-dependent decline in forebrain of cholinergic function, and recent evidence indicates that the cholinergic neurons in the nucleus basalis magnocellularis, the septal-diagonal band area and the striatum undergo age-dependent atrophy. Thus, as in Alzheimer-type dementia in man, degenerative changes in the forebrain cholinergic system may contribute to age-related cognitive impairments in rodents. The cause of these degenerative changes is not known. Recent studies have shown that the central cholinergic neurons in the septal-diagonal band area, nucleus basalis and striatum are sensitive to the neurotrophic protein nerve growth factor (NGF). In particular, intraventricular injections or infusions of NGF in young adult rats have been shown to prevent retrograde neuronal cell death and promote behavioural recovery after damage to the septo-hippocampal connections. It is so far not known, however, whether the atrophic cholinergic neurons in aged animals are responsive to NGF treatment. We report here that continuous intracerebral infusion of NGF over a period of four weeks can partly reverse the cholinergic cell body atrophy and improve retention of a spatial memory task in behaviourally impaired aged rats.

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Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI

Histo- and immunohistochemical changes in acetylcholinesterase and choline acetyltransferase activities in the amygdaloid complex in aged rats.

TL;DR: In aged rats, atrophic AChE positive and ChAT immunoreactive nerve cells exhibited serpentine-like, thicker, and less extensively branched dendrites than those in young adult rats, similar to the age-related changes in the cholinergic enzymes in other brain regions which are targets to the basal forebrain.
Journal ArticleDOI

Conjunctivally administered NGF antibody reduces pain sensitivity and anxiety-like behavioral responses in aged female mice.

TL;DR: Findings support the hypothesis that topical eye application can represent an alternative route for delivering biologically active compounds into the brain allowing studying the role of NGF on brain cell function.
Book ChapterDOI

Overview and future directions of CNS cholinergic mechanisms.

TL;DR: The data presented at this meeting indicate that ACh in the CNS, acting on muscarinic receptors, establishes a specific state of affairs that makes it possible for other mechanisms to work, which indicates that the central cholinergic systems have a widespread activatory function, which prepares the neurons for the information accumulation and retrieval.

Neuroprotection and Neurotransplantation Strategies in Models of Parkinson’s Disease

TL;DR: The finding that porcine dopaminergic neurons survive with in adult host brain, reinervate the DA depleted striatum, and mediate fuctional recovery suggests that porCine DA neurons may serve as an alternate cell source for transplantation in PD.
Journal ArticleDOI

Specific mechanism for blood inflow stimulation in brain area prone to Alzheimer's disease lesions.

TL;DR: The present study describes the specific two-stage mechanism that intensifies blood supply to the brain area comprising amygdala, hippocampus, olfactory bulb, entorhinal cortex, and neocortex (AHBC) through cholinergic neurons from the nuclei of basal forebrain induce vasodilatory effect through release of acetylcholine.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI

Developments of a water-maze procedure for studying spatial learning in the rat

TL;DR: Developments of an open-field water-maze procedure in which rats learn to escape from opaque water onto a hidden platform are described, suggesting that they may lend themselves to a variety of behavioural investigations, including pharmacological work and studies of cerebral function.
Journal ArticleDOI

The Cholinergic Hypothesis of Geriatric Memory Dysfunction

TL;DR: Biochemical, electrophysiological, and pharmacological evidence supporting a role for cholinergic dysfunction in age-related memory disturbances is critically reviewed and an attempt has been made to identify pseudoissues, resolve certain controversies, and clarify misconceptions that have occurred in the literature.
Journal ArticleDOI

Nerve growth factor promotes survival of septal cholinergic neurons after fimbrial transections

TL;DR: It is suggested that fimbrial transections resulted in retrograde degeneration of cholinergic septo-hippocampal neurons and that NGF treatment strongly attenuated this lesion-induced degeneration.
Journal ArticleDOI

Nerve growth factor treatment after brain injury prevents neuronal death

TL;DR: Cholinergic neuronal degeneration after axotomy has been proposed to be due to the loss of a retrogradely transported neurotrophic factor, possibly nerve growth factor (NGF), and NGF was continuously infused into the lateral ventricles of adult rats that had received bilateral lesions of all cholinergic axons projecting from the medial septum to the dorsal hippocampus.
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