G. Wahlstrom et al., NERVE GROWTH-FACTOR (NGF) IN RAT-BRAIN FOLLOWING LONG-TERM BARBITAL TREATMENT - RELATION TO CONVULSIONS AND COGNITIVE FUNCTION, Neuroscience letters, 137(1), 1992, pp. 65-68
Nerve growth factor (NGF) protein has been implicated in alterations o
f cognitive function either following brain damage, selective lesions
or aging. Groups of rats were given long-term (48 weeks) oral barbital
treatment or tap water and following an extended period of abstinence
(14 weeks) were tested for spatial learning ability in the Morris swi
m maze. Following the maze test, they were sacrificed and the NGF cont
ent of hippocampal and cortical brain regions were analyzed. Barbital
treated rats were divided into convulsing and non-convulsing groups. I
t was found that there was a slight, significant increase (12%) in NGF
content of the hippocampus in convulsing rats. Correlations between m
aze learning performance, brain weight and NGF in the cortex indicated
a significant negative relationship between (a) performance and brain
weight on day 1 of testing and (b) NGF content and performance on day
2. These data indicate some involvement of NGF in functions derived f
rom a considerably different animal model to those applied previously.