Ameliorative effect of betulin from Betula platyphylla bark on scopolamineinduced amnesic mice

Namki Cho, Hyeon Woo Kim, Hee Kyoung Lee, Byung Ju Jeon, Sang Hyun Sung

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

24 Scopus citations

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease induced by cholinergic neuron damage or amyloid-beta aggregation in the basal forebrain region and resulting in cognitive disorder. We previously reported on the neuroprotective effects of Betula platyphylla bark (BPB) in an amyloid-beta-induced amnesic mouse model. In this study, we obtained a cognitive-enhancing compound by assessing results using a scopolamine-induced amnesic mouse model. Our results show that oral treatment of mice with BPB and betulin significantly ameliorated scopolamine-induced memory deficits in both passive avoidance and Y-maze tests. In the Morris water maze test, administration of BPB and betulin significantly improved memory and cognitive function indicating the formation of working and reference memories in treated mice. Moreover, betulin significantly increased glutathione content in mouse hippocampus, and the increase was greater than that from betulinic acid treatment. We conclude that BPB and its active component betulin have potential as therapeutic, cognitive enhancer in AD.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)166-171
Number of pages6
JournalBioscience, Biotechnology and Biochemistry
Volume80
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2016

Keywords

  • Betulin
  • Cognitive enhancement
  • Morris water maze
  • Passive avoidance
  • Y-maze

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