Effects of long term high cholesterol diet on spatial learning in aged rats

Shuang Rong,Wenfang Li,Jing Zeng,Meng Chen,Rui Xu,Jing Cheng,Chengcheng Ding

doi:10.15761/ifnm.1000169

Abstract

Effects of long term high cholesterol diet on spatial learning in aged rats

Highlights

Consumption of a long term high cholesterol diet for 6 months significantly elevated serum cholesterol levels reported to controls
Our findings provided evidence that a long-term cholesterol-treated rats impaired aged rats’ spatial learning
The experimental studies have confirmed that high cholesterol diet is detrimental to cognitive performance in animal models but the findings were mostly performed in young adult animals [1]

Summary

Materials and methods

Eighty 8-month-old female Sprague–Dawley rats (weighted 336.95 ± 42.00 g), were obtained from Hubei province center of disease control and prevention (Wuhan, China). The escape platform (12 cm in diameter and 15 cm in height) was submerged approximately 1 cm below the surface of the water and placed in the center of the SW quadrant, and it was located in the same position on every trial, whose top lies approximately 1 cm beneath the water surface. On the day before the experiment, the rats were placed in the pool and allowed to swim for 60 s in the absence of the escape platform. A trial began by placing a rat in the water with its head facing the wall of the pool at one of the three starting positions located in the NE, SE and NW quadrant, respectively. Cognition ability was performed by searching for the same hidden platform in the target quadrant, which more experimental parameters including the escape latency, the total distance of swimming and the average swimming speed. Escape latency (the time taken to find the platform) in s, swimming distance (length of swim path to reach the platform) in mm, and average swimming speed in mm/s were recorded by the surveillance cameras and computer, and analyzed by SuperMaze V2.0 system software

Results

Introduction

Study design