Journal ArticleDOI
Amelioration of cholinergic neuron atrophy and spatial memory impairment in aged rats by nerve growth factor.
Walter Fischer,Klas Wictorin,Anders Björklund,Lawrence R. Williams,Silvio Varon,Fred H. Gage +5 more
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.read more
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Gene therapy-mediated enhancement of protective protein expression for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease
TL;DR: A review of gene therapy-based treatment of Alzheimer's disease can be found in this article, where the authors discuss how the risks associated with uncontrolled or irreversible gene expression might be mitigated through combining neuronal-specific promoters, inducible expression systems and localised injections.
Book ChapterDOI
Exogenous Nerve Growth Factor Stimulates Choline Acetyltransferase Activity in Basal Forebrain of Axotomized and Aged Rats
TL;DR: NGF is now known to be present and produced in the CNS, and is in largest amount in the cortex and hippocampus, the target tissues for neurons in the basal forebrain.
DissertationDOI
Neural and synaptic plasticity in the chick brain after passive avoidance learning
TL;DR: Radioimmunoassay measurements of cortisol in chick forebrain tissue demonstrated longer term increase in levels of steroid in the chick Hp compared to arcopallium and striatum mediale 20 minutes after training, indicating that PAL is a stressful experience which may explain synaptic density and cell proliferation reduction observed after PAL.
Patent
Composition comprising the extract of herbs for preventing or treating neurodegenerative disorders
TL;DR: In this article, a pharmaceutical composition and a health functional food for preventing or improving neurodegenerative disorders consisting of mixed herb extracts of Dioscorea rhizoma and Diocorea nipponica in a weight ratio of 3.5:1 (w/w).
Journal ArticleDOI
Nerve growth factor as a potential treatment in Alzheimer's disease
TL;DR: An adequate rationale for considering the use of NGF in the treatment of AD exists, but much basic work needs to be done prior to any clinical trials in order to design an ethically and scientifically sound study.
References
More filters
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
Raymond T. Bartus,Raymond T. Bartus,Reginald L. Dean,Bernard Beer,Bernard Beer,Arnold S. Lippa,Arnold S. Lippa +6 more
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
Book reviewHandbook of Chemical Neuroanatomy: Methods in Chemical Neuroanatomy. Edited by A. Bjorklund and T. Hokfelt. Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1983. Cloth bound, 548 pp. UK £140. (Volume 1 in the series).
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.