Cognitive Impairments of Sleep-Deprived Ovariectomized (OVX) Female Rats by Voluntary Exercise

Previous studies demonstrated that forced and voluntary exercise had ameliorative effects on behavioral tasks followed by Sleep Deprivation (SD) in intact female rats. The main goal of this research was evaluating the impact of voluntary exercise on cognitive functions while SD and ovariectomization is induced in female wistar rats.

The rats were anesthesized combining dosage of ketamine and xylazine. Then, both ovaries were eliminated and 3 weeks after surgery the animals entered the study. The exercise protocol took 4 weeks of voluntary exercise in a wheel which was connected to home cage. For inducing a 72 hours deprivation the multiple platforms was applied. The cognitive functions were studied by exploiting the Morris Water Maze (MWM) and Novel object recognition tests. Anxiety was evaluated by open field test and corticostrone measurement was carried out by ELISA method. One-way and two-way ANOVA and repeated measures were utilized for data analysis and P<0.05 was considered statistically significant.

We observed significant spatial and recognition learning and memory impairments in OVX sleep-deprived rats compared to the control group and voluntary exercise alleviated the SD-induced learning and memory defects.

We concluded that voluntary exercise can improve cognitive impairments followed by SD in OVX female rats.