Possibility of diet induced hypercholesterolemic rats as a dementia model

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K14735
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Food science
• Research Institution: Kyushu University
• Principal Investigator: Sato Masao 九州大学, 農学研究院, 教授 (90294909)
• Research Collaborator: MIYAGO Motonori ; TANAKA Yasutake
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 認知症 / 糖尿病 / モデル動物 / 酸化コレステロール

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Dementia is a neurodegenerative disorder in later life. Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) has been reported as a risk factor of dementia. Exogenously hypercholesterolemic (ExHC) rats, a model of diet-induced hypercholesterolemia, have lower learning ability than other strains. Our previous study showed that Smek2 is a responsible gene for the ExHC rat’s phenotypes. ExHC rats showed T2D-like glucose metabolic disorders, such as insulin resistance and hyperglycemia. Therefore, we hypothesized that ExHC rat is a model for AD related to T2D. In this study, we researched cerebral lipid and glucose metabolism. We researched cerebral metabolism in 22-week-old male ExHC and SD rats with no cholesterol diet for 2 weeks (old-exp). The cerebral cortical b-amiroid levels were significantly higher in ExHC rats than SD rats. These data suggest that ExHC rats have a risk of developing dementia.

Free Research Field

栄養化学