The Elderberry Diet Protection Against Intrahippocampal Aβ-Induced Memory Dysfunction; The Abrogated Apoptosis and Neuroinflammation

The present study evaluates whether elderberry (EB) effectively decreases the inflammation and oxidative stress in the brain cells to reduce Aβ toxicity. In the Aβ+EB group, EB powder was added to rats' routine diet for eight consecutive weeks. Then, many behavioral factors, such as spatial memory, working memory, and long-term memory, were measured using the Morris water maze, T-maze test, and passive avoidance test. This investigation studied the immunohistopathology, distribution of hippocampal cells, and gene expression through Sholl analysis, light microscopy, and real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Also, the Voronoi tessellation method was used to estimate the spatial distribution of the cells in the hippocampus. In addition to improving the memory functions of rats with Aβ toxicity, a reduction in astrogliosis and astrocytes process length and the number of branches and intersections distal to the soma was observed in their hippocampus compared to the control group. Further analysis indicated that the EB diet decreased the caspase-3 expression in the hippocampus of rats with Aβ toxicity. Also, EB protected hippocampal pyramidal neurons against Aβ toxicity and improved the spatial distribution of the hippocampal neurons. Moreover, treatment with an EB diet decreased the expression of inflammatory and apoptotic genes. Findings of the present study suggest that EB can be considered a potent modifier of astrocytes' reactivation and inflammatory responses.