Preventive Effects of Marine Collagen Peptide on Learning and Memory in Aged C57BL/6J Mice

To observe the preventive effects of Marine Collagen Peptide(MCP) on learning and memory in aged mice, 20-month old female C57BL/6J mice were divided into an aged control group and three MCP-treated groups.The effects on cognitive function, hepatic antioxidative systems, hippocampal morphology and expression of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor(BDNF) were studied after feeding the aged mice MCP(0.22% or 0.44% or 1.32%(wt/wt) in diet) for 6 months.Cognitive functions were assessed using the step-down test and the Morris water maze, respectively.Hippocampal morphology was examined by nissl stain.RT-PCR and Western blotwere used to evaluate the expression of BDNF in hippocampus.The results show that their spatial memory and passive avoidance ability were significantly improved when they were fed with MCP.Furthermore, the activity of SOD was significantly increased and the level of MDA was decreased in the 0.44% MCP supplementation group as compared to the aged control group.The expression of hippocampal BDNF was significantly up-regulated in the aged mice treated with 0.44% and 1.32% MCP.However, the number of nisslpositive cell saw no significant difference among all groups.These results suggest that MCP administration has a preventive effect on memory tasks by lowering oxidative damage and up-regulating expression of BDNF.