Abstract

The effect of salidroside (SD) on learning and memory ability of vascular dementia (VaD) rats were studied. The Wistar rats were randomly divided into six groups: Sham-operation group, VaD group, positive control (PC) group, SD high dose (SD-HD) treatment group, SD moderate dose (SD-MD) treatment group and SD low dose (SD-LD) treatment group. The bilateral common carotid arteries of Wistar rats were permanently ligated to established VaD models. The special study and memory were observed by Y-maze test. At postoperative 4, 8 and 12 weeks, error number (EN) and total reaction time (TRT) in the VaD, PC, SD-HD, SD-MD and SD-LD group were significantly more than those in the sham- operation group (P< 0.05 or 0.01), while EN and TRT in the PC, SD-HD, SD-MD and SD-LD groups were significantly less than those in the VaD group (P<0.05 or 0.01). Compared with PC group, EN and TRT in SD-MD and SD-LD groups were also higher (P<0.05 or 0.01). However, there were no significant differences in EN and TRT between PC and SD-HD groups (P>0.05). These results suggested that SD could improve the learning and memory ability of VaD rats by different dosages.

Key words: Salidroside, vascular dementia, rats.