Evaluating the effect of α-pinene on motor activity, avoidance memory and lipid peroxidation in animal model of Parkinson disease in adult male rats

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common neuropathologic disorder that is caused by degeneration of dopaminergic neurons of dense part of nigra. Oxidative stress has been found in the pathophysiology of PD. Since α-pinene has strong anti-oxidant effects, the purpose of this research was to study its effects on movement disorders and memory and lipid peroxidation in PD.

Thirty five male rats were divided in 5 groups: control, vehicle, PD (received injection of 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA)) and Parkinson's groups receiving doses of 100 and 200 mg/kg via gavage for two weeks. Generating animal models for Parkinson was done by intracerebral injection of 6-OHDA in the left side of the brain in medial forebrain bundle (MFB). After the injection, the movement balance of the rats was measured by Rotarod. Memory test was done by shuttle box; their brain was extracted to analyze malondialdehyde (MDA) in striatum, hippocampus and blood.

The  results showed that Parkinson caused, movement disorder (p<0.01), avoidance memory reduction (p<0.001) and malondialdehyde accumulation in hippocampus (p<0.05) and striatum (p<0.001) tissues and in blood (p<0.001). Administration of 200 and 100 mg/kg α-pinene improved the movement disorder (p<0.05). Administration of both doses of 200 and 100mg/kg showed improvement in avoidance memory (p<0.001) and (p<0.01), respectively. Malondialdehyde showed reduction in striatum (p<0.001) and hippocampus (p<0.05, p<0.001), respectively in the treatment groups after administration of both doses. In the blood, the dose of 200 α-pinene significantly reduced MDA in the tretment groups. Conclosion: The results of this research show that α-pinene could reduce the symptoms of PD in rats.