PT577. Distribution of Human Umbilical Cord Blood-derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells (hUCB-MSCs) in the Alzheimer’s Disease Transgenic Mouse after a Single Intravenous Injection

Our previous experiments demonstrated that social isolation (SI) caused AD-like tau hyperphosphorylation and spatial memory deficits in middle-aged rats. However, the underlying mechanisms of SI-induced spatial memory deficits remains elusive. Middle-aged rats (10 months) were group or isolation reared for 8 weeks. Following the initial four-week period of rearing, citalopram (10 mg/kg i.p.) was administered for 28 days. Then, pathophysiological changes were assessed by performing behavioral, biochemical and pathological analyses. We found that SI could cause cognitive dysfunction and decrease synaptic protein (synaptophysin or PSD93) expression in different brain regions associated with cognition, such as the prefrontal cortex, dorsal hippocampus, ventral hippocampus, amygdala and caudal putamen, but not in the entorhinal cortex or posterior cingulate. Citalopram could significantly improve learning and memory and partially restore synaptophysin or PSD93 expression in the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and amygdala in SI rats. Moreover, SI decreased the number of dendritic spines in the prefrontal cortex, dorsal hippocampus and ventral hippocampus, which could be reversed by citalopram. Furthermore, SI reduced the levels of BDNF, serine-473-phosphorylated Akt (active form) and serine-9-phosphorylated GSK-3β (inactive form) with no significant changes in the levels of total GSK-3β and Akt in the dorsal hippocampus, but not in the posterior cingulate. Our results suggest that decreased synaptic plasticity in cognition-associated regions might contribute to SI-induced cognitive deficits, and citalopram could ameliorate these deficits by promoting synaptic plasticity mainly in the prefrontal cortex, dorsal hippocampus and ventral hippocampus. The BDNF/Akt/ GSK-3β pathway plays an important role in regulating synaptic plasticity in SI rats.