Effect of sub-chronic intraperitoneal administration of aminoguanidine on the memory and hippocampal apoptosis-related genes in diabetic rats

Memory impairment is a common disorder in diabetes mellitus which is associated with hippocampal neuronal apoptosis.The present study was conducted to examine the effect of one-week intraperitoneal (ip), administration of aminoguanidine (AG) on passive avoidance learning (PAL) and Bcl-2 family gene expression in the hippocampus of rats.Sixty male rats were divided into ten groups: non-diabetic/diabetic animals with/without AG (50, 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg, ip) treatment for one week.PAL and Bcl-2 family genes were examined.AG (100 and 200 mg/kg) improved both memory and Bax, Bak, Bcl-2 and Bcl-xl defi ciency signifi cantly in diabetic rats.AG treatment also ameliorated the diabetes-induced changes in (Bcl-2+Bcl-xl)/(Bak+Bax) ratios considerably.These results propose that one-week ip administration of AG may recover the defi cit cognition in diabetic rats via enhancing (Bcl-2+Bcl-xl)/(Bak+Bax) proportions (Tab.2, Fig. 4, Ref. 55).