Tualang honey improves memory and hippocampal changes in adult offspring of prenatally stressed rats

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Prenatal stress has been shown to be associated with development of abnormal behaviour as well as disruption of learning and memory processing of spatial information in the offspring. METHODS: This study investigated whether alteration of memory, changes in the hippocampus morphology, levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) and N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor in the hippocampus of adult rat offspring following prenatal stress could be prevented by administration of Tualang honey in the pregnant dams.Twenty-four pregnant rats were randomized into control (C), stress group (S) and stress group treated with Tualang honey (TH). Twenty-four adult off spring were sacrificed following Novel Object Recognition Test. Their brains were removed and histolological changes, level of MDA and NMDA receptors in the hippocampus were determined. RESULTS: The offspring from TH group showed significant increase in preference index (p< 0.05) and improved hippocampal morphology compared to S group The group also demonstrated a significantly lower level of MDA and NMDA receptors (P<0.01; P<0.05 respectively) compared to S group. There were no differences in the parameters investigated between C and TH groups. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The study has shown that Tualang honey administration was associated with improvement in memory and morphology, levels of MDA and NMDA receptors in the hippocampus in the adult offspring following prenatal stress. The results suggest the protective role of Tualang in prenatally stressed rat offspring