부산대학교 도서관

Nicotine is reported to improve learning and memory in experimental animals. Improved learning and memory has also been related to increased neural cell genesis in the dentate gyrus of the brain hippocampal formation. Stimulation of acetylcholine receptors has also been found to enhance the expression and secretion of amyloid precursor protein (APP) in various cell lines. Aberrent metabolism of APP generates amyloid-beta (Abeta) peptide which is the major pathological lesion found in the brains of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. This paper will focus on the the results obtained in our laboratory on the effects of acute and chronic nicotine administration on the metabolism of APP, its role in spatial learning and neural cell genesis in the rat brain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]