The herbal prescription youkongdan modulates rodent memory, ischemic damage and cortical mRNA gene expression.

摘要

The effects of the herbal prescription youkongdan (YKD) on memory performance of rodents following cerebral ischemia/reperfusion and scopolamine administration were measured and compared to the age-related changes in mRNA expression induced by dietary supplementation of YKD. Following ischemia, YKD decreased neuronal cell loss in the CA1 region of rat hippocampus by 89% relative to controls. YKD improved the water maze performance of both ischemic and scopolamine-treated animals. Dietary administration of YKD resulted in significant modulation of Egr1, Grp78, Hsp86, SOD1, and alphaB crystallin mRNA expression and a trend toward increased exploratory behavior in older mice.