阿魏酸对血管性痴呆大鼠学习记忆障碍的改善作用及其机制研究

血管性痴呆(vascular dementia,VD)是一种严重威胁老年人生命健康的神经退行性疾病,随着人口的老龄化,VD发病率逐年上升,寻找安全有效的抗VD药物已成为药物研究的热点1,2]。近年来,中医药以活血化瘀法治疗VD取得了较大进展3?5]。川芎是一种典型的活血化瘀中药,始载于《神农本草经》,具有活血行气、祛风止痛的功效,广泛用于VD

Effect of ferulic acid on learning and memory impairments of vascular dementia rats and its mechanism of action

This study is to investigate the effect of ferulic acid on learning and memory impairments of vascular dementia (VD) rats and its mechanism of action.  VD rats model was replicated by permanent bilateral common carotid artery occlusion (2VO).  The learning and memory capability of VD rats was evaluated by Morris water maze.  The activity of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) and the content of glutamic acid (Glu) and malondialdehyde (MDA) in hippocampus of VD rats’ brain were determined, separately.  The results showed that ferulic acid could alleviate learning and memory deficits of VD rats significantly.  Ferulic acid was found to inhibit the activity of AChE and increased the activity of SOD in rat hippocampus.  In addition, ferulic acid could also decrease the content of Glu and MDA in rat hippocampus.  These results suggested that ferulic acid could alleviate VD rats’ learning and memory deficits, which might be due to antioxidation, the improvement of cholinergic system in brain, or the inhibitory of nerve injury by excitatory amino acids.