Affiliation:
1. BÜLENT ECEVİT ÜNİVERSİTESİ, TIP FAKÜLTESİ, TEMEL TIP BİLİMLERİ BÖLÜMÜ
2. ZONGULDAK BÜLENT ECEVİT ÜNİVERSİTESİ, TIP FAKÜLTESİ
Abstract
Aim: Postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) is usually seen in the aged patients in postoperative
period. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the effects of melatonin on cognitive and synaptic
dysfunction and oxidative stress in POCD model constructed by abdominal surgery in aged rats.
Material and Methods: Twenty months old male Wistar rats were randomly allocated into the control
group, melatonin treated-control group, surgery group and melatonin treated-surgery group. The novel
object recognition test (NORT) was used to assess the postoperative cognitive ability of rats at the
end of the experiments. The contents of malondialdehyde (MDA) and reduced glutathione (GSH) were
evaluated in the synaptosomes of hippocampus by spectrophotometric methods. The protein levels of
calcium-calmodulin dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) and postsynaptic density protein 95 (PSD95)
were measured by using ELISA. .
Results: Animals in surgery group showed significant an impairment of novel object recognition memory
in NORT. Surgery group also exhibited increased content of MDA (21.05±3.96) and decreased levels
of GSH (5.86±0.26) and PSD95 (156.04±2.56) in the hippocampus (respectively p=0.012, p
Publisher
Bulent Evcevit University