Interaction of vitamin E and scopolamine on memory retention in male Wistar rats

Vitamin E (vit. E) is an antioxidant compound with different kinds including tocopherols and tocotrienols. The major sources of vit. E are vegetable and seed oils. The recommended dietary allowances vary with age, gender, and state of the person. There have been numerous experiments showing beneficial effects of vit. E on immune system, cancer, and coronary artery diseases in the elderly. Moreover, vit. E in general appears to play a beneficial role in maintaining human good health. The aim of this study is to define the interaction of vit. E and scopolamine on memory retention. For this purpose a permanent guide cannula was implanted stereotaxically within the right lateral ventricle of adult male rats. After recovery period, animals received habituation and training sessions by passive avoidance task. The drugs were injected after shock intracerebroventricularly. The effect of these drugs on memory retention was evaluated after 24h. The results showed that scopolamine, the antagonist of muscarinic receptor (1, 5 ?g/rat) decreases memory retention, while vit. E (50 ?g/rat) potentiates this response. The pretreatment of scopolamine (0.1, 1, and 5 ?g/rat) attenuated increasing response induced by vit. E (50 ?g/rat). The results indicated that there is a close interaction between scopolamine and vit. E. In addition, vit. E increases acetylcholine release in the brain and improves memory retention.