Trace Elements in Medicine (Moscow)
2019, 20(2): 39-46
ORIGINAL PAPERS

THE STUDY OF PROTECTIVE ROLE OF ASCORBIC ACID WITH REGARD TO LEARNING AND MEMORY FROM THE TOXIC EFFECTS OF LEAD

O.V. Karpukhina^1,3, S.B. Bokieva², K.Z. Gumargalieva³, A.N. Inozemtsev¹

¹ Department of Higher Nervous Activity, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Leninskie Gory 1, str. 12, 119234, Moscow, Russia
² North Ossetian State University, Vatutina str. 46, 362025, Vladikavkaz, Russia
³ N.N. Semenov Institute of Chemical Physics RAS; Kosygina str. 4, 119991, Moscow, Russia

DOI: 10.19112/2413-6174-2019-20-2-39-46 

ABSTRACT. We studied the effect of intraperitoneal injection of ascorbic acid at a dose of 250 mg/kg and lead acetate at a dose of 15 mg/kg on two-way avoidance conditioning in rats, which served as an experimental model of training and memory. The experiment was carried out during 5 sessions with intervals of one day. To determine the ef-fect of the heavy metal salt and the acid on the avoidance conditioning, depending on the time of their injection, 3 se-ries of experiments were performed: I. Injection of lead acetate for 5 hours and ascorbic acid for 2 hours before each experiment; II. Lead acetate injection for 24 h, ascorbic acid injections and lead acetate for 2.5 h before so each experiment; III. Lead acetate injection 24 h before the experiment, lead acetate and ascorbic acid injection 0.5 h before the experiment. It was found that ascorbic acid enhanced avoidance learning both in control rats and under the influence of lead acetate, if it was administered before or after the heavy metal injection. This means that the acid reduces the effects of both pain stress caused by electric current and oxidative stress caused by the heavy metal. Ascorbic acid with simultaneous injection with the heavy metal for 0.5 hours before the experiment did not reduce the neurotoxic inhibition of training, and the level of avoidance with simultaneous injection did not differ from that with the administration of lead acetate alone. In both cases, the lead salt reduced the activity of ascorbic acid, so that with the combined administration of agents, avoidance training was worse than with the administration of the antioxidant without the heavy metal.

KEYWORDS: learning, active avoidance, shuttle box, lead, antioxidants, ascorbic acid.