Hypoperfusion, or slowed blood flow, kills hippocamapal brain cells and cortical brain cells in all rats. Hypoperfusion causes neurodegeneration in an animal model. But the effect of cellular death shows up only in older animals. "Learning/memory deficits and hippocampal and cortical neurodegeneration occurred in middle-aged rats. The data indicate that 4-VO/ICA has no impact on the capacity of young rats to learn the radial maze task, despite 51% hippocampal cell death. Such resistance is lost in middle-aged animals, for which the most extensive neurodegeneration observed in both the hippocampus and cerebral cortex may be responsible." Sound familiar?


Middle-aged, but not young, rats develop cognitive impairment and cortical neurodegeneration followi
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© 2011 The Authors. European Journal of Neuroscience © 2011 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and Blackwell Publishing Ltd