Crocin Treatment After Maternal Hypoxia Attenuates Spatial Memory Impairment and Expression of Bace1 and Hif-1α in Rat Offspring Brain

Introduction: hypoxia via expression of hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (hif-1) is an important and effective factor in the onset and progression of memory disorders, such as alzheimer disease (ad). the activity of β-secretase (bace1) is increased in hypoxia conditions. bace1 triggers a cascade of pathological events resulting in ad. crocin acts as a memory-improving agent but its molecular mechanism is not well-known. therefore, in this study, the effect of crocin on spatial memory, hif-1α, and bace1 gene expression was investigated in rat offspring under maternal hypoxia. methods: female pregnant rats on the 20th day of pregnancy were divided into 4 groups, including sham, crocin-treated, hypoxia, and hypoxia group treated with crocin. in the hypoxia groups, pregnant rats were exposed to 7% oxygen and 93% nitrogen intensity for 3 h. in the crocin-treated group, crocin (30 mg/kg) was injected at p14-28 (i.p). at the end, morris water maze was used to assess spatial memory and real-time polymerase chain reaction was performed to measure the expression of bace1 and hif-1α genes in the brain of offspring. results: maternal hypoxia impaired memory compared with the sham group. however, crocin treatment improved cognitive behavior. hif-1α and bace1 expressions were upregulated in the brain of offspring in the hypoxia group. crocin treatment could attenuate the expression of both genes. conclusion: according to our results, down-regulation of hif-1α and bace1 gene expressions in the brain of rat offspring after crocin treatment can be suggested as a molecular mechanism for crocin to improve spatial memory.