Electron microscopic morphometric studies on the effects of idebenone on the synaptic remodelling activity in the hippocampus and cerebellum in normal old as well as in vitamin E-deficient adult rats

Abstract

Electron microscopic morphometric investigation has been carried out on the synaptic junctions of the hippocampal dentate gyri and cerebellar glomeruli of normal, old female Wistar rats (29 months of age), and vitamin E-deficient, female adult rats (11 months of age) of the same strain. The vitamin E-deficient diet was maintained from the age of 1 month for the subsequent 10-month period. Both the normal old and the vitamin E-deficient rats were treated with a daily dose of 50 mg oxidized idebenone/kg body w/day or with its solvent (5% gum arabic) through a gastric tube during the last month before killing them. The following morphometric parameters were evaluated in the hippocampal dentate gyrus and cerebellar glomerulus: the average length of the synapses (L) the surface density (S v) and the numerical density (N v) of the synaptic contact zones. Although the idebenone treatment caused a tendency to improve these parameters in both brain compartments studied, these improvements did not reach statistical significance in the cerebellum, but did so in the case of hippocampal N v. Vitamin E deprivation caused the usual, known alterations of the synaptic parameters. Idebenone treatment during the last month of this experiment compensated the decrease of S v in both the hippocampus and the cerebellum; however, its protective effect was significant only in the case of hippocampus. Idebenone effect manifests itself in the increase of L, contributing mainly to the increase of S v, since N v remained practically invariate. Placebo treatments did not result in any significant alterations in the vitamin E-deficient group.