Spatial Memory Deficits Of Aged Rats Are Correlated With The High Cholesterol Content Of The Dorsal Hippocampus

Objective: With the increasing senile populations year by year, the ageing society has already arose in our country in advance. Compared with the young persons, the aged, more or less, have learning and memory impairments following by lower capability for adapting themselves to the society and poor life quality. To retain the memory functionally, it depends on the integrated hippocampus in the limbic system. Recent studies indicate that rodents also exhibit age-dependent hippocampal dysfunction resulting in spatial memory deficits.Affecting up to 15 million individuals worldwide until 2005, Alzheimer disease (AD) is a kind of senile dementia following by cognitive dysfunction. It is predicted that, within ageing populations, prevalence may triple by 2050. Memory deficits are one of the most important clinical manifestations. Recent investigation has suggested that memory deficits in AD are correlated with the metabolic disorder of the brain cholesterol. Although not all of old people suffer from AD, it is true that almost every senile person might, to a certain extent, show memory deficits. Then what is the molecular mechanisms underlying memory deficits for the aged? Is the metabolic...