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Sex-Independent Cognition Improvement in Response to Kaempferol in the Model of Sporadic Alzheimer’s Disease

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Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is associated with neural oxidative stress and inflammation, and it is assumed to affect more women than men with unknown mechanisms. Kaempferol (KMP) as a potent natural antioxidant has been known to exhibit various biological and pharmacological functions, including antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. We aimed here to evaluate the role of gender difference in response to KMP on the rat model of sporadic AD. Forty-six female and male Wistar rats were divided into six groups of sham, streptozotocin (STZ) + saline (SAL), STZ + KMP. Female rats were ovariectomized, and then all animals received an intracerebroventricular bilateral injection of STZ (3 mg/kg) to induce the AD model. KMP (10 mg/kg) was intraperitoneally administered for 21 consecutive days. Afterward, spatial learning and memory were assessed via the Morris water maze task (MWM). Finally, the hippocampus level of superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione, and malondialdehyde were measured using calorimetric kits. Data showed a significant cognition deficit in STZ + SAL compared with the sham. To sum up, we reported that chronic KMP treatment increase significantly improved acquisition and retrieval of spatial memory as evident by longer TTS (total time spent) and short-latency to the platform in MWM. In addition, KMP increased the levels of SOD and glutathione in the hippocampus of rats. Also, KMP decreased hippocampal levels of malondialdehyde in both genders. In conclusion, KMP successfully restores spatial memory impairment independent of gender difference. This memory restoration may at least in part be mediated through boosting the hippocampal level of SOD and glutathione.

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Data Availability

The datasets and supporting materials generated and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Funding

This study was supported by a grant from Research and Technology Chancellor of Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Iran (No. IR. GUMS. REC. 1936.51). The funder did not participate in data collection and analysis, paper writing, or submission.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Neuroscience Research Center, School of Medicine, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran

    Parvin Babaei, Kimia Eyvani & Somayeh Kouhestani

  2. Cellular & Molecular Research Center, School of Medicine, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran

    Parvin Babaei, Kimia Eyvani & Somayeh Kouhestani

  3. Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran

    Parvin Babaei, Kimia Eyvani & Somayeh Kouhestani

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  1. Parvin Babaei
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  2. Kimia Eyvani
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Contributions

PB designed this study, performed experiments, wrote and revised the paper for important intellectual content. KE performed experiments and read the manuscript. SK performed experiments, statistical analysis, and participated in paper writing. All authors approved the final version of the paper.

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Correspondence to Somayeh Kouhestani.

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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical Approval

Experiments were conducted according to the National Institutes of Health guide for the care and use of laboratory animals (NIH Publications No. 8023, revised 1978) and was approved by the ethics committee of Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran (IR.GUMS.REC.1396.51).

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Babaei, P., Eyvani, K. & Kouhestani, S. Sex-Independent Cognition Improvement in Response to Kaempferol in the Model of Sporadic Alzheimer’s Disease. Neurochem Res 46, 1480–1486 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11064-021-03289-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11064-021-03289-y

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