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Nicotine reverses adult‐onset hypothyroidism‐induced impairment of learning and memory: Behavioral and electrophysiological studies
Author(s) -
Alzoubi K.H.,
Aleisa A.M.,
Gerges N.Z.,
Alkadhi K.A.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of neuroscience research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.72
H-Index - 160
eISSN - 1097-4547
pISSN - 0360-4012
DOI - 10.1002/jnr.21014
Subject(s) - nicotine , long term potentiation , hippocampus , memory impairment , morris water navigation task , medicine , psychology , electrophysiology , endocrinology , neuroscience , cognition , receptor
Nicotine alleviates cognitive impairment associated with a variety of health conditions. We examined the effect of chronic nicotine treatment on adult‐onset hypothyroidism‐induced impairment of learning and memory in rats. Hypothyroidism was induced by surgical removal of thyroid glands (thyroidectomy). One month later, chronic nicotine treatment (1 mg/kg sc, twice/day) was instituted for 4–6 weeks. Test of hippocampus‐dependent spatial learning and memory in the radial arm water maze showed that hypothyroidism impaired learning as well as short‐term and long‐term memory retention. Chronic nicotine treatment reversed the hypothyroidism‐induced learning and memory impairment. In normal rats, chronic nicotine treatment had no effect on learning and memory. Extracellular recordings from the CA1 region of anesthetized hypothyroid rats showed severe reduction of both early‐phase and late‐phase long‐term potentiation (LTP) magnitude, which was reversed in nicotine‐treated hypothyroid rats. These results show that chronic nicotine treatment prevents hypothyroidism‐induced impairment of spatial cognition and LTP. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.