Abstract

 Introduction: Intracerebroventricular (ICV) injection of streptozotocin (STZ) causes cognitive impairment in rats. The beneficial effect of genistein (GEN) was investigated on ICV STZ-induced learning, memory, and cognitive impairment in male rats.

Methods: For this purpose, rats were injected with ICV STZ bilaterally, on days 1 and 3 (3 mg/kg). The STZ-injected rats received GEN (1 mg/kg/day, p.o.) starting one day pre-surgery for two weeks. The learning and memory performance was assessed using passive avoidance paradigm, and for spatial cognition evaluation, radial eight-arm maze (RAM) task was used.

 Results: It was found out that GEN-treated STZ-injected rats show higher correct choices and lower errors in RAM than vehicle-treated STZ-injected rats. In addition, GEN administration significantly attenuated learning and memory impairment in treated STZ-injected group in passive avoidance test.

Discussion: These results demonstrate the effectiveness of GEN in preventing the cognitive deficits caused by ICV STZ in rats and its potential in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD).