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Prolonged oral administration of Gastrodia elata extract improves spatial learning and memory of scopolamine-treated rats

Laboratory Animal Research volume 31, pages 69–77 (2015)Cite this article

Abstract

Gastrodia elata (GE) is traditionally used for treatment of various disorders including neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. To investigate the neuroprotective effect of GE, amyloid-β peptide (Aβ)-treated PC12 cells were cultured with GE aqueous extract. In vitro assay demonstrated that 50 µM of pre-aggregated Aβ was lethal to about a half portion of PC12 cells and that Aβ aggregate-induced cell death was significantly decreased with GE treatment at ≤10 mg/mL in a dose-dependent manner. To further examine in vivo cognitive-improving effects, an artificial amnesic animal model, scopolamineinjected Sprague-Dawley rats, were orally administered the extract for 6 weeks followed by behavioral tests (the passive avoidance test and Morris water maze test). The results showed that an acute treatment with scopolamine (1 mg/kg of body weight) effectively induced memory impairment in normal rats and that the learning and memory capability of scopolamine-treated rats improved after prolonged administration of GE extract (50, 250 and 500 mg/kg of body weight for 6 weeks). These findings suggest that a GE regimen may potentially ameliorate learning and memory deficits and/or cognitive impairments caused by neuronal cell death.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Core Technology Development and Commercialization Support in Industry-Academia-Research Collaboration (project no. 2013C03) funded by the province of Jeonbuk, Korea.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Huvet Co. Ltd., 160 Yakchon-ro, Iksan, Jeonbuk, 570-979, Korea

    Young-Mi Park, Bong-Gun Lee, Sang-Hoon Park, Hong-Geun Oh, Yang-Gyu Kang & Hak-Yong Lee

  2. Animal Disease Research Unit, Wonkwang University, Iksan, Korea

    Ok-Jin Kim

  3. Center for Animal Resources Development, Wonkwang University, Iksan, Korea

    Ok-Jin Kim

  4. Namyoung Pharm, Muju, Korea

    Lee-Seong Kwon, Yong-Phill Kim & Min-Hyu Choi

  5. Research Center for Industrial Development of Biofood Materials, Chonbuk National University, 567 Baekje-daero, Jeonju, Jeonbuk, 561-756, Korea

    Yong-Seob Jeong & Jisun Oh

  6. Department of Food Science and Technology, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju, Korea

    Yong-Seob Jeong & Jisun Oh

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  1. Young-Mi Park
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  2. Bong-Gun Lee
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Correspondence to Jisun Oh or Hak-Yong Lee.

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Park, YM., Lee, BG., Park, SH. et al. Prolonged oral administration of Gastrodia elata extract improves spatial learning and memory of scopolamine-treated rats. Lab Anim Res 31, 69–77 (2015). https://doi.org/10.5625/lar.2015.31.2.69

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.5625/lar.2015.31.2.69

Keywords

  • Gastrodia elata
  • scopolamine-induced memory impairment
  • amyloid-β peptide
  • neuroprotective effect
  • cognitive-enhancing effect

Laboratory Animal Research

ISSN: 2233-7660