Effects of Plant Compound Curcumin on Learning and Memory of Chronic Cerebral Hypoperfusion Rats

Abstract:

Vascular dementia (VD) is the cognitive impairment clinical syndrome caused by various cerebrovascular diseases. At present the exact causes of VD are not clear, it is believed that ischemic cerebral vascular disease is one of the factors. Hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, tobacco and alcohol addiction are risk factors of VD. Most of them can be traced back to the youth. Curcumin has a neuroprotective effect in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other neurodegenerative diseases. But the effect of curcumin on brain injury caused by chronic cerebral hypoperfusion was unclear. In this study, chronic cerebral ischemia model was used to investigate the effect of curcumin on learning and memory ability of young and aged rats and to explore the mechanism of neuroprotective effect of Curcumin. The result showed that Curcumin can reduce the brain damage both in young and aged VD rats and improve learning and memory ability, and the effect was dose-dependent, without age difference. The pathological injury of the hippocampus might be one of the mechanisms of curcumin improving cognitive impairment of VD rats.

• Periodical: Advanced Materials Research (Volumes 1120-1121)
• Pages: 853-856
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.1120-1121.853
• Online since: July 2015
• Authors: Li Tang, Yu Li*
• Keywords: Curcumin, Learning, Memory, Vascular Dementia

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