Learning abilities and choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) activities in brain regions and nerve growth factor (NGF) contents in submandibular glands of four mouse strains

• Published in: Japanese Journal of Pharmacology Vol. 49; no. suppl; p. 265
• Main Authors: Wada, Tsukasa, Segawa, Mitsuru, Saito, Hiroshi, Imada, Akira, Nishiyama, Nobuyoshi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Japanese
• Published: The Japanese Pharmacological Society 1989
• ISSN: 0021-5198; 1347-3506
• DOI: 10.1016/S0021-5198(19)56632-X

Learning abilities of four mouse strains, senesces accelerated mouse (SAM) , C57, ICR and C3H were examined by the passive avoidance response, step-down and step-through tests when they were 5.5 months old, and next by the active avoidance response (shuttle-box and lever-press tests when they were 6.5 months old). In order to investigate the biochemical changes related to learning abilities, ChAT and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) activities in eleven brain regions were determined when mice were 8 months old. NGF contents in submandibular glands, one of the indexes of aging, were also examined. SAM-P/8, a senescence-prone substrain, showed significant disability in the step-down test and at the early stage of acquisition in the lever-press test compared with SAM-R/1, a senescence-resistant substrain. C57 could hardly learn the task in lever-press test. However, no notable correlation between these differences and ChAT or TH activities in brain regions could be found. C3H had significantly higher NGF content than C57, but there was no difference between SAM-P/8 and SAM-R/1.These results indicate that synthesis of acetylcholine or catecholamines in the central nervous system is not important for the strain differences of learning behaviors.