Ascorbic Acid Protects Against Restraint Stress-Induced Memory Deficits in Wistar Rats

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:Chronic stress has been shown to cause oxidative damage in the central nervous system. Although stress-induced impairments in learning and memory have been studied extensively, very few studies have investigated possible ways to prevent their ill effects. The present work was designed to study the protective effects of ascorbic acid in memory loss induced by chronic restraint stress.METHODS:Adult male Wistar rats were designated into the following groups: (i) Normal control, (ii) Ascorbic acid treatment, (iii) Vehicle control, (iv) Restraint stress, (v) Restraint stress + vehicle, and (vi) Restraint stress + ascorbic acid treatment. At the end of 21 days, animals of all groups were subjected to memory tests using Morris water maze and passive avoidance apparatus. Then, the results obtained were compared between the experimental groups.RESULTS:Rats exposed to restraint stress alone and those pretreated with vehicle solution before restrained stress showed deficits in learning and impaired memory retention in the memory tests when compared to animals in other experimental groups. Animals pretreated with ascorbic acid before restraining showed significant improvement in memory retention in the same memory tests.CONCLUSIONS:Results of this study suggest the possibility of using ascorbic acid as a dietary supplement to prevent stress-induced memory impairments.

Ascorbic Acid Ameliorates Nicotine Exposure Induced Impaired Spatial Memory Performances in Rats

“…Antioxidant effects of vitamin E and C have been reported against prenatal nicotine induced oxidative stress effects in rats and in monkeys (18,22). The positive effect of AA on the behavioral deficits caused by the restraint stress was also reported (33,34). A report suggests that monosodium glutamate (MSG) induced altered neurobehavioural performance were significantly prevented by the supplementation of ascorbic acid in periadolescent rats (35).…”

Exploring the effect of vitamin C on sleep deprivation induced memory impairment

“…It was shown to reduce learning and memory impairment associated with Alzheimer's diseases (Harrison et al, 2009), chronic stress (Heo et al, 2013;Kumar et al, 2009;Tagliari et al, 2011), diabetes (Bhutada et al, 2011;Hasanein and Shahidi, 2010), exposure to fluoride (Raghu et al, 2013), and melamine (An and Zhang, 2014), and the aging process (Fotuhi et al, 2008;Kennard and Harrison, 2014;Yang et al, 2010). In the current study, the possible preventive effect of VitC on impairment of memory induced by chronic sleep deprivation was examined.…”

“…A number of studies were carried out to investigate the effect of VitC on learning and memory deficits induced by different diseases or conditions. VitC treatment prevented the generation of free radicals and improved learning and memory performance in animal models of chronic stress (Heo et al, 2013;Kumar et al, 2009;Tagliari et al, 2011). Treatment with VitC also restored learning and memory functions in rats exposed to fluoride (Raghu et al, 2013), and melamine (An and Zhang, 2014) via reducing the production of free-radicals from the hippocampus.…”

Preventive and therapeutic effect of treadmill running on chronic stress-induced memory deficit in rats

“…If an animal did not enter the dark compartment within 300 s, the trial was terminated (Wang and Cai, 2008). Absence of entry to the dark compartment or a longer duration in the light compartment indicated a positive response (Kumar et al, 2009). The PA task determined the ability of a rat to remember the foot shock.…”