Degree Type
Honors Capstone Project
Date of Submission
Spring 5-2016
Capstone Advisor
Paul Gold
Capstone Major
Biology
Capstone College
Arts and Science
Audio/Visual Component
no
Keywords
cognitive decline, aging
Capstone Prize Winner
no
Won Capstone Funding
no
Honors Categories
Sciences and Engineering
Subject Categories
Biotechnology | Integrative Biology
Abstract
Aging is often associated with cognitive decline, including problems with working memory and difficulties forming new memories. These deficits can be directly linked to the hippocampus, an area of the temporal lobe of the brain that is engaged during spatial working memory. Age-related declines may be influenced by changes in important modulatory pathways that impact hippocampal function, including regulation of the metabolite lactate. When astrocytic stores of glycogen are hydrolyzed, lactate is released into the extracellular space where it can be taken up by neurons and used as fuel during moments of activation. We previously found that the extracellular concentration of lactate rises in the hippocampus of young male rats while they performed a spatial working memory task (Newman et al., 2011). Infusions of lactate into the hippocampus of young adult males improved their memory performance on this same task (Newman et al., 2011). Recent data has shown that lactate does not rise as robustly in the hippocampus of old rats during spatial working memory when compared to their young counterparts. To investigate whether age-related memory deficits were a result of reversible shifts in metabolic regulation, young (3 months) and old (24 months) male Fischer 344 rats were given infusions of lactate or a vehicle control directly into the hippocampus immediately before a spatial working memory task. Old rats that received infusions of lactate showed robust improvement on this task compared to saline controls or young rats with the same treatment. These results indicate that age-related shifts in memory may be due to changes in metabolic regulation and may be reversed with the application of specific useful metabolites.
Recommended Citation
Hamling, Brooke, "Lactate as a Memory-Enhancing Metabolite Across the Lifespan in Male Fischer 344 Rats" (2016). Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All. 985.
https://surface.syr.edu/honors_capstone/985
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