Betaine reverses the memory impairments in a chronic cerebral hypoperfusion rat model

Neurosci Lett. 2016 Feb 26:615:9-14. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2015.11.019. Epub 2015 Dec 1.

Abstract

Vascular dementia (VaD) is the second reason for the cognitive decline in aged people, but the effective therapy is still missing. The chronic cerebral hypoperfusion (CCH) had been widely found in VaD patients and is thought to be the key reason for cognitive impairment. Betaine is a natural product that had been implicated in many biological processes and had been used for the therapy of some neurodegenerative disease, such as Alzheimer's disease. In this study, we reported that betaine treatment could rescue the memory deficits induced by two-vessel occlusion (2-VO), a widely used CCH rat model. Betaine also restored the expression of PSD93, PSD95 and MAP2 to preserve the synaptic functions. Furthermore, betaine could reduce the oxidative stress by suppressing the MDA and ROS and enhancing the SOD and GSH. Overall, betaine treatment is able to rescue the memory deficits in CCH rats, which provide an experimental basis for the therapy of VaD.

Keywords: Betaine; CCH; Memory; Oxidative stress.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Betaine / pharmacology
  • Betaine / therapeutic use*
  • Brain / blood supply*
  • Chronic Disease
  • Dementia, Vascular / drug therapy*
  • Dementia, Vascular / metabolism
  • Dementia, Vascular / psychology
  • Disease Models, Animal
  • Disks Large Homolog 4 Protein
  • Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins / metabolism
  • Male
  • Membrane Proteins / metabolism
  • Memory Disorders / drug therapy*
  • Memory Disorders / metabolism
  • Memory Disorders / psychology
  • Microtubule-Associated Proteins / metabolism
  • Oxidative Stress / drug effects
  • Rats, Sprague-Dawley
  • Spatial Learning / drug effects
  • Synapses / metabolism

Substances

  • Disks Large Homolog 4 Protein
  • Dlg4 protein, rat
  • Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins
  • MAP2 protein, rat
  • Membrane Proteins
  • Microtubule-Associated Proteins
  • Mpp2 protein, rat
  • Betaine