Dornan, Faculty Advisor, Wayne

Kern, Mary

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Illinois Wesleyan UniversityDigital Commons @ IWUJohn Wesley Powell Student ResearchConference 1996, 7th Annual JWP ConferenceApr 13th, 9:00 AM - 10:30 AMImmunolesions of the Cholinergic Medial SeptalArea Induced by Injections of 192 IGG SaporinHave No Appreciable Effect on Spatial Learning inthe Male RatMary KernIllinois Wesleyan UniversityWayne Dornan, Faculty AdvisorIllinois Wesleyan UniversityFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/jwprcThis Event is brought to you for free and open access by The Ames Library, the Andrew W. Mellon Center for Curricular and FacultyDevelopment, the Office of the Provost and the Office of the President. It has been accepted for inclusion in Digital Commons @ IWU bythe faculty at Illinois Wesleyan University. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@iwu.edu.©Copyright is owned by the author of this document.Mary Kern and Wayne Dornan, Faculty Advisor, "Immunolesions of the Cholinergic Medial Septal Area Induced byInjections of 192 IGG Saporin Have No Appreciable Effect on Spatial Learning in the Male Rat" (April 13, 1996). JohnWesley Powell Student Research Conference. Paper 29.http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/jwprc/1996/posters/29THE JOHN WESLEY POWELL STUDENT RESEARCH CONFERENCE 0 APRIL 1 996 Poster Presentation 33 IMMUNOLESIONS OF THE CHOLINERGIC MEDIAL SEPTAL AREA INDUCED BY INJECTIONS OF 192 IGG SAP ORIN HAVE NO APPRECIABLE EFFECT ON SPATIAL LEARNING IN THE MALE RAT Mary Kern and Wayne Dornan *, Department of Psychology, IWU Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is a progressive, neurodegenerative disorder that has already reached epidemic proportions. Indeed, AD is the fourth leading cause of death in adults, after heart disease, cancer and stroke, and is the most common form of dementia. Although most people diagnosed with AD are older than 65, AD can occur in people in their 40s and 50s. Over the past 2 years research in this laboratory has focused on developing an animal model of AD by mimicking the loss of the basal forebrain cholinergic projection using a variety of lesion techniques, and to determine how the loss of the fibers affect learning and memory in the rat. While a considerable amount of evidence has implicated the loss of cholinergic basal forebrain (CBF) input to the hippocampus and cortex as being one of the major neuropathological components characteristic of AD, the exact role the CBF system plays in the cognitive deficits observed in Alzheimer's disease is still uncertain. One factor that has contributed to this ambiguity is that until recently the lack of a specific cholinergic neurotoxin has hindered attempts to selectively destroy the cholinergic input to the cortex and hippocampus. As a result, there is considerable excitement regarding the introduction of the new cholinergic toxin, 192 IgG saporin as a potential new tool in generating an animal model that mimics the profound memory impairment that characterizes Alzheimer's disease. Unilateral injections of 192 IgG saporin into the lateral ventricles induces within 3-5 days, a 80-90% reduction of acetylcholine levels in the cortex and hippocampus. In this study animals received three stereotaxic injections of 192 IgG saporin into the medial septal area and the effects of these injections on a variety of spatial learning tasks were assessed. Our preliminary results indicate that intracerebral injections of 192 IgG saporin failed to appreciably effect the retention or acquisition of a spatial learning task despite a considerable depletion of acetylcholine. The significance of these results will be presented at the conference. 

Immunolesions of the Cholinergic Medial Septal Area Induced by Injections of 192 IGG Saporin Have No Appreciable Effect on Spatial Learning in the Male Rat

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Immunolesions of the Cholinergic Medial Septal Area Induced by Injections of 192 IGG Saporin Have No Appreciable Effect on Spatial Learning in the Male Rat

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