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Subject Area

Anatomy

Article Type

Original Study

Abstract

Objectives: to study the neurodegenerative changes affecting hippocampus of the aged rats compared to young rats and to explore the protective role of Ficus carica (FC) leaves extract. Background: Aging is the progressive accumulation of changes with time. Oxidative stress and low-grade inflammation are the hallmarks of the aging process. Methods: forty male albino rats were divided into four groups of ten rats each: Group I included young animals aged 3 months; group II included rats aged 3 months treated with FC ethanolic extract; group III included rats aged 24 months and group IV included aged rat treated with FC ethanolic extract. All animals were sacrificed after 6weeks. Blood samples were collected for biochemical assay and the hippocampus sections were prepared for histological and immunohistochemical studies. Morphometric and statistical analysis were carried out. Result: In comparison with the control group, aged group showed shrunken pyknotic pyramidal cells of the hippocampus, significant down regulation in the intensity colour of toluidine blue (13.80 + 2.65) but a significant up regulation for both glial fibrillary acidic protein immunoreaction (13.3 + 1.4) and caspase3 immunoreaction (34.31 +1 .55) (P

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