Influence of taurine on learning and memory cytokines in rats intrahippocampally injected with #beta#-amyloid

Objective: To investigate the effect of taurine on learning and memory impairment, cytokines secretion in rats intrahippocampally injected with β-amyloid (Aβ) 1-40. Methods: SD rats were randomly divided into control group, Aβ injected group, taurine (0.3g/kg·d, 0.6g/kg·d) groups. The rats were fed with taurine for 7 days, and then subjected to bilateral intrahippocampus injection of Aβ1-40 or vehicle. Two weeks later, all rats performed Morris water maze test. The contents of IL-6, TNF-α were checked by way of radio-immunity assay for hippocampus samples. Results: Compared with Aβmodel group, the escape latency and distance were significantly reduced in taurine (0.6g/kg·d) group; the ratio of swimming distance in the target quadrant to that in the whole pool of the probe trial; the content of cytokines of IL-6 and TNF-αin hippocampus were reduced significantly. Conclusion: Taurine can effectively attenuate the cognitive dysfunction caused by Aβ1-40 in rats. The reduced cytokines content in hippocampus might contribute to this effect.