Interaction between vitamin A and pilocarpine on memory retention in adult male rats

Several studies have reported that retinoic acid administration and/or consumption of a vitamin A-enriched diet was could repair the aging induced memory deficits, decreased hippocampal long term potentiation (LTP). Vitamin A deficiency impairs learning ability and hippocampal LTP in mice. In the present study, the effects of the vitamin A and pilocarpine (a muscarinic agonist) on memory retention in adult male rats were investigated. Post-training intracerebroventricular injections were carried out in all experiments. Memory retention was evaluated by using a step-through passive avoidance paradigm in adult male rats. Vitamin A (1000 and 2000 IU/rat) and pilocarpine (1 g/rat) increased memory retention. The acetylcholine receptor agonist (pilocarpine) increased the response to vitamin A. The response to vitamin A was potentiated by pilocarpine. It is concluded that vitamin A elicits an interaction with the cholinergic system in memory retention.