Effects of supplementing calcium and vitamin D on learning and memorizing abilities of senescence accelerated mouse P8

Abstract:

Objective：To observe the effects of supplementing calcium and vitamin D on learning and memorizing abilities of senescence accelerated mouse P8（SAMP8）. Methods：Totally 27 three-month-old male SAMP8 were randomly divided into 3 groups：caltrate D group（n=9），nimodipine group（n=9） and non-treatment SAMP8 group；9 SAMR1 of the same age were used as normal controls（SAMR1 group）. After 12 weeks of treatment，aging status was evaluated for each group with the scores of aging scale；the learning and memory were tested through Morris water maze. Results：（1）Based on the aging scale，scores were significantly lower in caltrate D group，nimodipine group and SAMR1 group than in non-treatment SAMP8 group（P<0.05）；there was no staitical difference among caltrate D group，nimodipine group and SAMR1 group（P >0.05）. （2）According to Morris water maze，latency in caltrate D group and nimodipine group was significantly shorter compared with that in non-treatment SAMP8 group（P<0.05），but was significa-ntly longer compared with that in SAMR1 group（P<0.05），there was no statistical difference between caltrate D group and nimodipine group（P >0.05）. Result of spatial probe test showed that the number of crossing through the platform was increased in caltrate D group and nimodipine group than in non-treatment SAMP8 group，which implied that the ability of memory retention of caltrate D group and nimodipine group was improved significantly compared with that of non-treatment SAMP8 group（P<0.05）. Conclusions：Supplementing of calcium and vitamin D can alleviate aging and improve learning and memorizing abilities in SAMP8 mice，similar to the effects of applying calcium channel blocker nimodipine. This study suggests that the prevention of calcium metabolic disorder can decrease aging and promote learning and memorizing abilities in SAMP8 mice，indicating calcium metabolic disorder may underlie the pathophysiology of deteriorated learning and memorizing abilities in SAMP8.