Degenerative Changes in Forebrain Cholinergic Nuclei Correlate with Cognitive Impairments in Aged Rats

Degenerative changes in the forebrain cholinergic nuclei have been studied morphometrically in behaviourally characterized aged female Sprague-Dawley rats. In all regions analysed (medial septum, diagonal band of Broca, nucleus basalis, and striatum) the acetylcholinesterase-positive neurons were reduced in both size and number in the aged (24-months-old) rats as compared to the young (3-months-old) controls. The overall reduction in cell size amounted to between 20 and 30% and the overall reduction in cell number to between 27 and 45%. Impairment in learning and/or memory performance in the aged rats, as assessed in the Morris' water-maze task, was significantly correlated with both cholinergic cell size and cell number in the medial septum, and with cholinergic cell number in the diagonal band of Broca and in the striatum. In the nucleus basalis there was a trend in the same direction but it did not reach significance. In contrast to these degenerative changes in the cell body regions, no significant differences in cortical or hippocampal choline acetyltransferase activity were detected biochemically between the young and the aged rats, and the enzyme activity levels did not correlate with the degree of behavioural impairment in the aged rats. The present results provide evidence that all major forebrain cholinergic cell groups undergo degenerative changes with age in the rat, and that the most severe changes are found in those rats which display the most profound spatial learning impairments. Despite the severe changes at the cell body level, however, the choline acetyltransferase activity in the cortical projection areas are affected only to a minor degree, perhaps as a result of functional compensatory changes at the terminal level.