Effect of Intraperitoneal Injection of Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) on Apoptosis, Memory and Alzheimer's Disease Processes in the Hippocampus of Male Wistar Rats in a Time-Dependent Manner

In this study, the effects of intraperitoneal injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in causing apoptosis by increasing the amount of protein apoptotic B-cell lymphoma-2- associated X protein (Bax) and Caspase-3 and decreasing protein anti-apoptotic B-cell lymphoma-2 (bcl-2) in the hippocampus of rats and its effect on memory in a time-dependent manner at 12, 24, 48, 72 and 120 hours after injection were examined. Male Wistar rats of 230 to 250 g for Western blotting, enzymatic test and shuttle box were used. Increase in the protein content of apoptotic Bax and Caspase-3 and decrease in antiapoptotic bcl-2 protein in a time-dependent manner was observed in cases compared to the controls. The results of testing the enzyme Caspase-3 confirmed Western blotting results. Dysfunction caused by LPS in memory determined by shuttle box test. All the results were significant at the level of P 0.001. Results showed that LPS increased the incidence of apoptosis and neuronal cell death in the hippocampus region of the brain of male Wistar rats in a time-dependent manner and decrease animal's memory.