Detecting the neurogenesis effect of erythropoietin and galantamine in the dentate gyrus and spatial memory in Alzheimer's experimental rat model

Abstract

Background: Alzheimer’s disease is neurodegenerative disorder develops unreversed causing memory and behavior impairment. It is estimated that 35.5 million people are living with Alzheimer’s disease worldwide. The early symptoms of Alzheimer’s are short-term memory weakness and it develops gradually causing death. There is no curing medication for Alzheimer’s rather than some drugs that improve memory defects for a period of time. Many studies proved that erythropoietin (EPO) and galantamine (GAL) could improve neurogenesis in hippocampus, which is promising in finding a cure for Alzheimer’s. Aims and Objectives: In this study, we compared neurogenesis effect of GAL and EPO and its effect on spatial memory. Materials and Methods: We used Wistar rats to make Alzheimer’s rat model by bilateral intracerebroventricular injection of streptozotocin. We used a dose of EPO 5000 IU/Kg intraperitoneal every other day for 14 days, and GAL group was treated with intraperitoneal daily dose of 5 mg/kg. Then, all groups were tested by Morris water maze test to compare spatial memory. Then, all rats were anesthetized and decapitated for immunohistochemical study by KI67 kit to investigate proliferated cells in dentate gyrus of hippocampus. Results: The results driven from the histological study showed that both EPO and GAL significantly increase neuronal proliferation in dentate gyrus of hippocampus, but EPO has better effect on neurogenesis, whereas GAL could improve spatial memory more than EPO in Morris water maze test. Conclusion: GAL has better effect on spatial memory in short period study, but EPO increases proliferation more than GAL.