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Impairment of short term memory in rats with hepatic encephalopathy due to bile duct ligation

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Abstract

Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) arises from acute or chronic liver diseases and leads to cognitive deficits. Different animal models for the study of HE have demonstrated learning and memory impairment and a number of neurotransmitter systems have been proposed to be involved in this. Recently, it was described that bile duct-ligated (BDL) rats exhibited altered spatio-temporal locomotor and exploratory activities and biosynthesis of neurotransmitter GABA in brain cortices. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate cognition in the same animal model. Male adult Wistar rats underwent common bile duct ligation (BDL rats) or manipulation of common bile duct without ligation (control rats). Six weeks after surgery, control and BDL rats underwent object recognition behavioral task. The BDL rats developed chronic liver failure and exhibited a decreased discrimination index for short term memory (STM) when compared to the control group. There was no difference in long term memory (LTM) as well as in total time of exploration in the training, STM and LTM sessions between the BDL and control rats. Therefore, the BDL rats demonstrated impaired STM for recognition memory, which was not due to decreased exploration.

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Acknowledgement

This study has been supported by the Brazilian funding agencies Fundo de Incentivo à Pesquisa e Eventos from Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul (Auxílio Recém Doutor - 11/1743.0). In addition, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (159769/2010-8) is cordially acknowledged for the post-doctoral fellowship for RL.

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Correspondence to Renata Leke.

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Leke, R., Oliveira, D.L., Forgiarini, L.F. et al. Impairment of short term memory in rats with hepatic encephalopathy due to bile duct ligation. Metab Brain Dis 28, 187–192 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11011-012-9347-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11011-012-9347-1

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