Ji-Ho Park
Kyung Hee University, S.Korea
Title: LTD- Long-term treatment with Oriental medicinal herb Artemisia princeps alters neuroplasticity in a rat model of ovarian hormone deficiency
Biography
Biography: Ji-Ho Park
Abstract
Artemisia princeps (AP) is a flowering perennial used as a traditional medicine and dietary supplement across East Asia. We examined the influence of chronic oral AP ethanol extract treatment in ovariectomized rats on the induction of long-term depression in a representative synapse (CA3-CA1) of the hippocampus. To address the neuronal effect, synaptic plasticity was examined in accute hippocampal slice with multielectrode array (MEA) system. Bipolar electrical stimulation was applied to the CA2 stratum radiatum region to stimulate the Schaffer collateral (SC) and commissural pathways. After the conditioning stimulation, field excitatory postsynaptic potentials (fEPSPs) were recorded every 60 sec for another 75 min from 59 microelectrodes spanning the hippocampus. Ovariectomized rats demonstrated lower trabecular mean bone mineral densities than sham, validating the establishment of pathology. Against this background of pathology, AP-treated ovariectomized rats exhibited attenuated LTD in CA1 relative to water-treated controls as measured by increased field excitatory post-synaptic potentials (fEPSP) activation averages over the post-stimulation period. While pathological significance of LTD in ovariectomized rats is conflicting, that AP treatment significantly affected its induction offers justification for further study of its influences on plasticity and its related disorders.