The Effect of L-alpha Glycerylphosphorylcholine on Memory in Female Mice (Mus
Musculus)
Michael Moghadasi, Jennifer Stangl, and Nicholas Yuen
Department of Biological Sciences
Saddleback College
Mission Viejo, CA 92692
Memory plays an integral role in everyday lives. Deterioration of memory can
impact everyday lives and cause the simplest of activities to become a hassle. Improvements
in or even maintaining memory can benefit every human being. (this is more fitting for
the intro) The ability of the chemical supplement L-alpha Glycerylphosphorylcholine
(GPC) to improve memory was tested on female mice (Mus musculus). The memory of the
mice was measured by the time it took them to run a maze without and with L-alpha
Glycerylphosphorylcholine. The mice were given 300 mg/Kg of the supplement and ran the
maze in 16.74 ± 1.935 seconds (±SEM) and 20.69 ± 2.661 seconds (±SEM) without and with
the supplement respectively. The results showed no statistical significant difference in the
duration of time it took to finish the maze between the groups; with or without the L-alpha
GPC (p=0.11, one-tailed t-test), the null hypothesis is accepted. (what’s your hypothsis?)
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter that
functions in many areas throughout the body including
the skeletal muscle in the arms and the cardiac muscle
in the heart; it also has a role in memory and
neuroplasticity
in
the
brain.
L-alpha
glycerylphosphorylcholine (GPC) is a cognitive
enhancing supplement that works as a precursor to
acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter involved in many
chemical synapses in the human body (De Jesus
Moreno Moreno, M., 2003). Greater levels of free
choline correspond to the increased synthesis of
acetylcholine in the brain (Blusztajn & Wurtman,
1983).
Deterioration and dysfunction of memory is a
major issue in today’s society due to its prevalence and
lack of treatment. Alzheimer’s disease is a complex
neurodegenerative dementing illness (Clark, 2003)
associated with a deficiency of achetylcholine in the
brain (Amenta F. Et Al.). It has recently been
hypothesized that certain choline supplementation may
aid in improving the effects of Alzheimer’s disease. As
a precursor to acetylcholine, L-alpha GPC may
improve memory and the effects of Alzheimer’s
disease (any reference here?). For this experiment, Lalpha GPC is expected to significantly improve the
time it takes for the mice to run the maze. (it feels like
the introduction comes to an end rather abruptly. May
need to expand more.)
Ten female mice (Mus musculus) were
purchased from PetsPlus in San Clemente, CA. They
were placed in a large 50 gallon tank and stored in a
house in Laguna Niguel, CA with food bowls and
water tanks. The temperature was kept at a range of
21°C to 29°C. A maze was made out of particle board
for the base and white wood (pine) for the walls.
Before the initial training, each mouse was held to
ensure they were used to being handled by humans and
to reduce their stress while being placed in the maze.
Every morning the food bowls were removed at least
four hours prior to conditioning. Each mouse was given
15 minutes to run through the maze and find the food
bowl that was placed at the end of the maze as a reward
for four consecutive days. On the fifth day, the time it
took the mice to reach the food bowls were recorded.
The process was repeated three times per mouse. The
mice were given two days of rest, and then for the
following four days they were given 15 minutes each
day to explore the maze again. Upon completion of the
maze on the fourth day, the mass of each mouse was
taken. Each mouse was given 300 mg/kg of the L-alpha
GPC mixed with 1 mg of peanut butter (Siagala, Et Al.
1992), in accordance with Table 1. Twenty-four hours
after they were given the supplement, (Abbiati, Et Al.
1993) the mice were again placed at the start of the
maze and the time it took for them to reach the end of
the maze was recorded. Using Microsoft Excel (2010),
a one-tailed paired t-test was run to compare the time
measured for each mouse to run the maze without the
L-alpha GPC and with the L-alpha GPC to determine if
there is a significant difference with the supplement.
run the maze (p=0.11, one-tailed t-test). Error bars
indicate SEM (N=8).
Results
Discussion
Figure 1 shows the mean of the best time
taken for the each mouse to run the maze without the
L-alpha GPC was 16.74 ±1.935 seconds and with the
L-alpha GPC was 20.69 ±2.661 seconds (±SEM). A
one-tailed t-test shows p=0.11 seconds. The average
time for the mice to run the trial without the L-alpha
GPC ranged from 9.010 to 25.50 seconds. The average
time taken for the mice to run the trial with the
supplement ranged from 8.770 to 35.61 seconds.
Comparison of the mean results with and
without L-alpha GPC demonstrated no statistically
significant difference between the times measured for
mice with the supplement and that for without the
supplement respectively. Thus the original hypothesis
is rejected and the null hypothesis is accepted. There
are many possibilities as to why the hypothesis was
rejected. One of the possible reasons could be that
running the maze requires physical exertion, which is
not relevant in cognitive function. During the time
trials with the supplement, Mission Viejo was
experiencing a heat wave and the mice took longer to
start the maze. Two of the mice were pregnant and
gave birth between the time trials with and without the
supplement, these two mice were eliminated from the
experiment. The other mice appeared to be more
agitated after the birth and were more concerned with
the mothers than actually running the maze or the food
at the end. Too short for discussion…
Table 1. The weight of each mouse in kg, and the
amount of supplement required for each mouse to be
given 300 mg/kg.
Weight Amount of
Mouse
(kg)
Supplement (mg)
black
gray
white
gray
0.0343
10.2960
0.0337
10.0950
arrow
0.0335
10.0410
albino
arrow's
twin
0.0330
9.8700
0.0354
10.6290
cream
0.0304
9.1050
dark gray
tan white
tan
0.0269
8.0820
0.0302
9.0720
Reference Cited
25
Abbiati G., Fossati T., Lachmann G., Bergamaschi M.,
Castiglioni C. 1993, Absorption, tissue distribution and
excretion of radiolabelled compounds in rats after
administration of [14C]-L-alphaglycerylphosphorylcholine. European Journal of
Pharmacology. 18(2), 173-180.
20
Time (sec)
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Saddleback
College Foundation for allowing the use of their
supplies for this experiment and Michael Moghadasi’s
parents for opening up their house allowing us to have
a safe place to keep the mice.
15
10
5
0
Without L-alpha With L-alpha GPC
GPC
Trial type
Figure 1. Average time measured for the mice to
complete the maze without (16.74 sec ±1.935) and with
(20.69 sec ±2.661) L-alpha GPC (±SEM). There is no
significant difference in duration of the time taken to
Amenta, Francesco, Lucilla Parnetti, Virgilio Gallai,
and Anders Wallin. 2001, Treatment of Cognitive
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Cholinergic Precursors. Ineffective Treatments or
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Blusztajn, J. K., & Wurtman, R. J. 1983, Choline and
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Clark, C. M., & Karlawish, J. H. 2003,. Alzheimer
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De Jesus Moreno Moreno, M. 2003, Cognitive
improvement in mild to moderate Alzheimer's
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therapeutics. 25(1), 178-193.
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Review Form
Department of Biological Sciences
Saddleback College, Mission Viejo, CA 92692
Author (s): Michael Moghadasi, Jennifer Stangl, and Nicholas Yuen
Title The Effect of L-alpha Glycerylphosphorylcholine on Memory in Female Mice (Mus musculus)
Summary
Summarize the paper succinctly and dispassionately. Do not criticize here, just show that you understood the paper.
The study was done to measure the difference in duration of the time it took for the mice to complete a
maze before and after the ingestion of the supplement called L-alpha glycerylphosphorylcholine, an
acetylcholine precursor. For the experiment, it was hypothesized that the time measured after ingestion
of L-alpha GPC by female mice will be significantly less than the time measured before. However, the
results showed no significant difference.
General Comments
Generally explain the paper’s strengths and weaknesses and whether they are serious, or important to our current
state of knowledge.
Interesting experiment! Overall, the paper was written in a way that was easy to understand although
there were some parts that seemed repetitive. Materials and Methods section was detailed and
thorough enough for me to follow. Expanding more on Introduction and Discussion sections would
greatly enhance the paper.
Technical Criticism
Review technical issues, organization and clarity. Provide a table of typographical errors, grammatical errors, and
minor textual problems. It's not the reviewer's job to copy Edit the paper, mark the manuscript.
This paper was a final version
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 This paper should be published as is
 This paper should be published with revision
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X This paper was a rough draft