Effect of nicotine on spatial learning and memory of mice

Objective To study the effect of nicotine on spatial learning and memory of mice.Methods A total of 20 male 14-week-old mice were randomly divided into nicotine group(n=9) and control group(n=7),another four mice were excluded.The mice in nicotine group were injected with nicotine at a dose of 250 nmol·kg-1 per day for thirteen days.The mice in control group were injected with similar volume of water.Morris water maze was used to assess the spatial learning and memory of mice.The time of mice spend to find the hidden platform under the surface of water was used to evaluate the ability of learning and memory of mice.Results The latency on the 2nd and 3th day in the nicotine group was significantly longer than that in the control group in place navigation experiment(P0.05);there was no significant difference at other time point between the two groups(P0.05).The swimming time of mice in the SE quadrant of nicotine group was(111.89±21.53)s,and in control group was(85.44±12.56)s,the difference was statistic significance(P0.05).The latency of nicotine group was significantly longer than that in the control group on the 4th day of the reverse learning(P 0.05) and no significant difference was found at another time point(P0.05).Conclusion The nicotine can reduce the spatial learning ability of mice within a few days.However,the effect of nicotine seems to decrease in a long period of time.