Co-treatment of vitamin D supplementation with enriched environment improves synaptic plasticity and spatial learning and memory in aged rats

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • Mahnaz Bayat
  • Kohlmeier, Kristi Anne
  • Masoud Haghani
  • Afshin Borhani Haghighi
  • Azadeh Khalili
  • Gholamreza Bayat
  • Etrat Hooshmandi
  • Mohammad Shabani

Rationale and objective: Environmental enrichment (EE) has been shown in old rats to improve learning and memory. Vitamin D (VitD) has also been shown to modulate age-related, cognitive dysfunction. As both EE and VitD could work to improve cognition via enhancement of neurotrophic factors, their effects might occlude one another. Therefore, a clinically relevant question is whether noted cognition-promoting effects of EE and VitD can co-occur. Methods: Aged rats were housed for 6 weeks in one of three housing conditions: environmentally enriched (EE), socially enriched (SE), or standard condition (SC). Further, a 4th group was co-treated with VitD supplementation (400 IU kg−1 daily, 6 weeks) under EE conditions (EE + VitD). Results: Treatment with VitD and EE housing were associated with higher score on measures of learning and memory and exhibited lower anxiety scores compared to EE alone, SE or SC as assayed in the elevated plus maze, Morris water maze, passive avoidance, and open field tasks. Additionally, in the EE + VitD group, mRNA expression levels of NGF, TrkA, BDNF, Nrf2, and IGF-1 were significantly higher compared to expression seen in the EE group. Furthermore, field potential recordings showed that EE + VitD resulted in a greater enhancement of hippocampal LTP and neuronal excitability when compared to EE alone. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that in aged rats exposure to EE and VitD results in effects on hippocampal cognitive dysfunction and molecular mechanisms which are greater than effects of EE alone, suggesting potential for synergistic therapeutic effects for management of age-related cognitive decline.

Original languageEnglish
JournalPsychopharmacology
Volume238
Pages (from-to)2297–2312
ISSN0033-3158
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Funding for this study was provided by Kerman Neuroscience Research Center.

    Research areas

  • Age-related cognitive decline, Enriched environment, Learning and memory, Neuronal excitability, Vitamin D

ID: 270065262