London, United Kingdom 2013 Poster Session Red Cerebrovasc Dis 2013; 35 (suppl 3)1-854 541 478 Experimental studies Photochemically induced cortical infarcts in rats impair the recall of remote memories in a water maze task. A. Schmidt1, K. Diederich2, J. Minnerup3 Department of Neurology, University of Münster, Münster, GERMANY1, Department of Neu-rology, University of Münster, Münster, GERMANY2, Department of Neurology, University of Münster, Münster, GERMANY3 Background: In spite of a high incidence, there is no specific treatment of post-stroke dementia. The preclinical evaluation of candidate drugs has been limited, because most animal studies have failed to reliably reflect cognitive deficits after stroke. However, there are only few studies on cognitive impairment after photothrombotic ischemia. We therefore induced photothrombotic cortical infarcts and assessed cognitive and sensorimotor deficits. Methods: Photothrombotic cortical infarcts were induced in 19 adult male Wistar rats. Nineteen sh-am- operated animals served as controls. The Morris water maze test was used to analyse cognitive deficits. We carried out two experiments to investigate the effects of photothrombotic infarcts on both, the acquisition of new memories and the recall of previously acquired memories. The adhesive tape removal test, the cylinder test and the rotarod test were performed to assess sensorimotor defi-cits. Results: Photothrombotic cortical infarcts significantly impaired the recall of memories acquired prior to surgery (p < 0.05). The acquisition of new memories was not significantly affected. The adhesive tape removal test and the cylinder test revealed mild and stable sensorimotor deficits in le-sioned animals (p < 0.05). The swimming speed in the water maze was similar among lesioned and sham-operated animals. Conclusions: Our study shows that photothrombotic cortical infarcts impair the recall of remote memories in a water maze task, whereas the acquisition of new memories is not affected. In our study, deficits in the water maze performance were not attributable to disturbed sensorimotor func-tions. Altogether, photothrombotic cortical infarcts are well suited for the investigation of cognitive impairment in the Morris water maze.
Karger_ESC London_2013
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