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01-06-2013 | Original Paper

Impairment of short term memory in rats with hepatic encephalopathy due to bile duct ligation

Authors: Renata Leke, Diogo L. Oliveira, Luiz F. Forgiarini, Thayssa D. C. Escobar, Thais O. Hammes, Fabíola S. Meyer, Susanne Keiding, Themis R. Silveira, Arne Schousboe

Published in: Metabolic Brain Disease | Issue 2/2013

Abstract

Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) arises from acute or chronic liver diseases and leads to cognitive deficits. Different animal models for the study of HE have demonstrated learning and memory impairment and a number of neurotransmitter systems have been proposed to be involved in this. Recently, it was described that bile duct-ligated (BDL) rats exhibited altered spatio-temporal locomotor and exploratory activities and biosynthesis of neurotransmitter GABA in brain cortices. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate cognition in the same animal model. Male adult Wistar rats underwent common bile duct ligation (BDL rats) or manipulation of common bile duct without ligation (control rats). Six weeks after surgery, control and BDL rats underwent object recognition behavioral task. The BDL rats developed chronic liver failure and exhibited a decreased discrimination index for short term memory (STM) when compared to the control group. There was no difference in long term memory (LTM) as well as in total time of exploration in the training, STM and LTM sessions between the BDL and control rats. Therefore, the BDL rats demonstrated impaired STM for recognition memory, which was not due to decreased exploration.

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Title: Impairment of short term memory in rats with hepatic encephalopathy due to bile duct ligation
Authors: Renata Leke
Diogo L. Oliveira
Luiz F. Forgiarini
Thayssa D. C. Escobar
Thais O. Hammes
Fabíola S. Meyer
Susanne Keiding
Themis R. Silveira
Arne Schousboe
Publication date: 01-06-2013
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: Metabolic Brain Disease / Issue 2/2013
Print ISSN: 0885-7490
Electronic ISSN: 1573-7365
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11011-012-9347-1

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Impairment of short term memory in rats with hepatic encephalopathy due to bile duct ligation

Abstract

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