Age and cognitive status dependent differences in blood steroid and thyroid hormone concentrations in intact male rats

Behavioral and Brain Functions

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[1] 0000 0000 9259 8492, grid.22937.3d, Core Unit of Biomedical Research, Division of Laboratory Animal Science and Genetics, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria;0000 0001 2165 8627, grid.8664.c, Steroid Research & Mass Spectrometry Unit, Peptide Hormone Research Unit, Laboratory for Translational Hormone Analytics in Pediatric Endocrinology, Division of Pediatric Endocrinology & Diabetology, Center of Child and Adolescent Medicine, Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany;0000 0001 2165 8627, grid.8664.c, Veterinary Clinic for Obstetrics, Gynecology and Andrology of Large and Small Animals, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany;0000 0001 2286 1424, grid.10420.37, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria;0000 0004 0523 5263, grid.21604.31, Neuroscience Laboratory, Paracelsus Medical University, 5020, Salzburg, Austria;

关键词: Aging;    Rat;    Cognitive decline;    Testosterone;    Steroid hormones;    Thyroid hormones;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12993-019-0161-3

来源: publisher

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundAge-dependent alterations of hormonal states have been considered to be involved in age related decline of cognitive abilities. Most of the studies in animal models are based on hormonal substitution in adrenal- and/or gonadectomized rodents or infusion of steroid hormones in intact rats. Moreover, the manipulations have been done timely, closely related to test procedures, thus reflecting short-term hormonal mechanisms in the regulation of learning and memory. Here we studied whether more general states of steroid and thyroid hormone profiles, independent from acute experiences, may possibly reflect long-term learning capacity. A large cohort of aged (17–18 months) intact male rats were tested in a spatial hole-board learning task and a subset of inferior and superior learners was included into the analysis. Young male adult rats (16 weeks of age) were also tested. Four to 8 weeks after testing blood plasma samples were taken and hormone concentrations of a variety of steroid hormones were measured by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry or radioimmunoassay (17β-estradiol, thyroid hormones).ResultsAged good learners were similar to young rats in the behavioral task. Aged poor learners but not good learners showed higher levels of triiodothyronine (T3) as compared to young rats. Aged good learners had higher levels of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) than aged poor learning and young rats. Both aged good and poor learners showed significantly reduced levels of testosterone (T), 4-androstenedione (4A), androstanediol-3α,17β (AD), dihydrotestosterone (DHT), 17-hydroxyprogesterone (17OHP), higher levels of progesterone (Prog) and similar levels of 17β-estradiol (E2) as compared to young rats. The learning, but not the memory indices of all rats were significantly and positively correlated with levels of dihydrotestosterone, androstanediol-3α,17β and thyroxine (T4), when the impacts of age and cognitive division were eliminated by partial correlation analyses.ConclusionThe correlation of hormone concentrations of individuals with individual behavior revealed a possible specific role of these androgen and thyroid hormones in a state of general preparedness to learn.

【 授权许可】

CC BY