Abstract
Aging has long been an issue, and approximately one of four Japanese will be 75 or older by 2065. Therefore, it is expected that medical costs will increase, and locomotive disorders (locomotive syndrome) and dementia will become more serious. Aging is a combination of such disorders of memory, movement, and emotion. These motor, memory, and emotional disorders need to be improved collectively in order to achieve a healthy and long-lived society. We found that knockout (KO) mice of DGKgamma, a lipid-metabolizing enzyme, exhibit memory, motor, and emotional deficits due to aging. Using these aged model mice, we found that the memory, motor, and emotional deficits were caused by an increase in the activity of PKCgamma in respective brain-specific regions. We also found that PKCgamma activity in the brain is increased in SAM mice, which are famous model mouse of aging. More surprisingly, the memory, emotional, and motor deficits were ameliorated by oral administration of certain flavonoid for 2 weeks, along with normalization of PKCgamma activity. These facts suggest that relatively short-term dietary application can improve memory, emotional, and motor impairments associated with aging.
