Expression profile of apolipoprotein E in Alzheimer rat animal model: Modulation effect of vitamin D and mushroom on the behavioral deficits and neuropathological alterations

A close relationship has been found between the central nervous system and vitamin D in which its deficiency leads to neurological and psychological disorders. The current study is focused on utilizing mushrooms as an important dietary source of vitamin D2 against AD. Male Wister rats (n=70) were divided into several groups, supplemented with vitamin D and mushroom and exposed to ALCI3 to induce AD. Expression of apolipoprotein E (ApoE4) biomarker of AD and neuropathological alterations were conducted in brain hippocampus. Additionally, behavioral analysis using Y Maze Spontaneous Alternation Test was performed. The results showed that AD group of rats exhibited high expression levels of ApoE4 gene associated with neuronal cell loss. Additionally, an elevation in number of degenerated neurons in the hippocampal sub-regions coincided with low spontaneous alternation percentage (SA%) were observed in AD group. Conversely, pre-supplementation of rats exposed to ALCI3 with vitamin D and mushroom mitigated the severe neurotoxicity resulted from AlCl3 inducing AD rats. The beneficial effects of vitamin D and mushroom consumption on improving memory in AD mice could be due to the interaction between other bioactive compounds and vitamin D2 inhibiting the oxidative stress in brain hippocampus.