Original Article

Facilitating effects of histamine on spatial memory deficit induced by scopolamine in rats

Zhong Chen, Chiaki Kamei

Abstract

"AIM:
To investigate whether or not histamine was involved in scopolamine-induced spatial memory deficits evaluated in 8-arm radial maze performance of rats.
METHODS:
Eight-Arm radial maze performance was used to measure spatial memory in rats, and the brain regions were subsequently dissected and histamine contents were determined by HPLC.
RESULTS:
Intracerebroventricular (icv) injection of histamine (100 or 200 ng) or thioperamide (50 micrograms), and intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of histidine (1000 mg/kg) ameliorated memory impairment induced by scopolamine regarding both parameters of radial maze performance. 2-Thiazolylethylamine, but not 4-methylhistamine showed the similar effect to histamine. Both histamine (200 ng, icv) and histidine (1000 mg/kg, i.p.) were equally effective in increasing the histamine content in the cortex, hippocampus, and hypothalamus.
CONCLUSION:
These results suggest that brain histamine plays an important role in learning and memory, and its action may be due to cholinergic neurons."
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