The ability of VSL#3 to restore the age-related deficit in LTP is associated with changes in brain genes expression
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ABSTRACT: A deficit in synaptic plasticity is one of the many changes that occurs with age. Specifically the archetypal model of plasticity, long-term potentiation (LTP), is reduced in hippocampus of middle-aged and aged animals. Several factors are likely to contribute to this deficit including morphological changes like a net loss of neurons and loss of synapses with the consequent changes in receptor signalling. However it is also clear that ageing is associated with development of oxidative stress, and also inflammatory stress which is typified by increased activation of microglia. Recent evidence has indicated that probiotics exert anti-inflammatory in the gut. Specifically VSL#3, a proprietary probiotic comprising 8 Gram-positive bacterial strains, decreased markers of inflammation in the colon in an animal model of colitis. We considered that its anti-inflammatory effects might extend to brain and therefore that treatment of aged rats with VSL#3 might attenuate the age-related deficit in LTP. The evidence indicates that LTP was impaired in control-treated aged rats but sustained in aged rats which received VSL#3. This was accompanied by a modest decrease in markers of microglial activation and an increase in BDNF and synapsin . The microarray analysis demonstrated that VSL#3 treatment induces changes also in the expression of some brain genes.
ORGANISM(S): Rattus norvegicus
PROVIDER: GSE51381 | GEO | 2014/04/02
SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA222855
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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