Cognition-enhancing properties of subchronic phosphatidylserine (PS) treatment in middle-aged rats: Comparison of bovine cortex PS with egg PS and soybean PS

There are various clinical and non-clinical studies that have indicated tha t phosphatidylserine (PS) treatment can improve cognitive functions in huma ns and other animals. However, treatment with PS derived from bovine cortex is not desirable because of possible transfer of infectious diseases. The present study investigated the cognition-enhancing properties of different types of PS in rats. Seventeen-month-old male Fischer 344 rats were treated daily with a dose of 15 mg/kg of PS derived from bovine cortex (BC-PS), so ybean (S-PS), egg (E-PS), or vehicle (n = 9 for each group). The effects of treatment were evaluated in three different behavioral tests. An open fiel d test was conducted to examine the effects of treatment on psychomotor beh avior. Two other tests (Morris water escape task and two-way active avoidan ce) assessed treatment effects on the cognitive performance of rats. Treatm ent with the different forms of PS did not affect the psychomotor or spatia l discrimination performance of the rats. In accordance with previous studi es, the cognition-enhancing effects of BC-PS were observed in the two-way a ctive avoidance task. It appeared that the cognition-enhancing effects of S -PS were not different from those of BG-PS, The performance of rats treated with E-PS did not deviate from that of vehicle-treated rats. On the basis of the present study, it was concluded that S-PS, but not E-PSI may have co mparable effects on cognition when compared with BC-PS. Nutrition 1999;15:7 78-783. (C) Elsevier Science Inc. 1999.