Can marriage be a preventive factor for cognitive decline?

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K24309
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: 0909:Sports sciences, physical education, health sciences, and related fields
• Research Institution: Gunma University
• Principal Investigator: Ikezawa Maiko (池澤麻衣子) 群馬大学, 大学院医学系研究科, 助教 (50701322)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-08-30 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: アルツハイマー病 / 認知症（AD）モデル / プレリーハタネズミ / 婚姻関係 / streptozotocin

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, we clarify the effect of the marital relationship of monogamous voles on cognitive impairment and its neural mechanism. We investigated the behavioral properties of the prairie vole, which is known to have a high degree of sociality unlike mice and rats.
Regarding the characteristics of object cognition and spatial cognition in voles, no main effect was observed depending on whether or not they were married. However, it was suggested that the marital voles had better object cognition and spatial learning ability than the control group.

Free Research Field

細胞生物学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

超高齢化社会を迎えた本邦では認知症予防は喫緊の課題である。本研究では、「婚姻関係が認知機能低下の予防的因子となりうるか」といった問いを生物学的に取り組む。ヒトの認知機能の低下は数年から数十年にわたる長い経過をたどることや実験的にヒトの認知機能を低下させることが倫理的に不可能であるため、よりヒトに近いモデル動物を利用することが必要となる。本研究では、マウスやラットよりも高い社会性を持つプレリーハタネズミの、行動学的性状や一夫一婦制に関わる神経基盤について生物学的にアプローチしている。