Chronic Treatment with Squid Phosphatidylserine Activates Glucose Uptake and Ameliorates TMT-Induced Cognitive Deficit in Rats via Activation of Cholinergic Systems

Abstract EN

The present study examined the effects of squid phosphatidylserine (Squid-PS) on the learning and memory function and the neural activity in rats with TMT-induced memory deficits.

The rats were administered saline or squid derived Squid-PS (Squid-PS 50 mg kg−1, p.o.) daily for 21 days.

The cognitive improving efficacy of Squid-PS on the amnesic rats, which was induced by TMT, was investigated by assessing the passive avoidance task and by performing choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) and acetylcholinesterase (AchE) immunohistochemistry.

18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose and performed a positron emission tomography (PET) scan was also performed.

In the passive avoidance test, the control group which were injected with TMT showed a markedly lower latency time than the non-treated normal group (P<0.05).

However, treatment of Squid-PS significantly recovered the impairment of memory compared to the control group (P<0.05).

Consistent with the behavioral data, Squid-PS significantly alleviated the loss of ChAT immunoreactive neurons in the hippocampal CA3 compared to that of the control group (P<0.01).

Also, Squid-PS significantly increased the AchE positive neurons in the hippocampal CA1 and CA3.

In the PET analysis, Squid-PS treatment increased the glucose uptake more than twofold in the frontal lobe and the hippocampus (P<0.05, resp.).

These results suggest that Squid-PS may be useful for improving the cognitive function via regulation of cholinergic enzyme activity and neural activity.