ABSTRACT
Vitamins C and E are naturally present in some foods and are available as dietary supplements. While vitamin C is also known as L-ascorbic acid, vitamin E is a generic name for tocopherols and tocotrienols each with α, β, γ and δ subunits. Neurobehavioural models have been used to study behaviour in animals with models specific for each animal species and behaviour. The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of vitamins C and E on memory and serum biochemical changes in adult mice. Twenty male and twenty female mice weighing 16-35 g were divided into 5 groups of eight mice each. The first group served as the control and received distilled water (1 ml/kg); mice in the second group served as the positive control and received soya oil (1 ml/kg), animals in group three received vitamin C (100 mg/kg), group four received vitamin E (100 mg/kg) and the last group received both vitamins C and E (100 mg/kg). The drugs were given once daily orally for a period of 21 days. Learning and memory were assessed using the elevated plus maze (EPM), object recognition and location models for memory (ORT and OLT) at the end of the experimental period. Memory index was calculated. The mice were sacrificed on day 22 and serum estrogen and testosterone levels and catalase, superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase activities were also evaluated. Lipid peroxidation was determined by measuring the malondialdehyde concentration in the brain sample. The relationship between the gonadal hormone levels and the performance of animals in each of the neurobehavioural models for memory was positive. There was no significant difference in the malondialdehyde concentration (P
INTRODUCTION
Vitamin C, also known as L-ascorbic acid, is a water-soluble vitamin that is naturally present in some foods, added to others, and available as a dietary supplement and is destroyed by heat or reduced by prolonged storage (Weinstein et al., 2001). Humans, unlike most animals, are unable to synthesize vitamin C endogenously, so it is an essential dietary component (Naidu, 2003; Li, 2007). Sex steroids are hormones produced mainly by the reproductive glands, either the ovaries or testes, which share a similar basic structure of three hexane rings and a pentane ring (Gasbarri, 2010). The primary role of the gonadal steroid hormones in mammals is to regulate reproduction and related behaviours; however, both androgens and estrogens are also integrally involved in mediating higher brain function and processes, including cognition, neural development and neural plasticity (Dohanich, 2002).