LAUSR

Objective: Vascular cognitive impairment is a heterogeneous group of diseases that share a cerebrovascular origin. Epidemiological studies have reported a beneficial effect of mild wine consumption in cognitive decline although the mechanisms through which this association occurs are still unknown. This work aims to explore this association by studying the effects of wine polyphenols and alcohol consumption on cognitive function of hypertensive and normotensive rats. Design and method: Forty adult male Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats (SHRs) and 40 Wistar Kyoto rats (WKY) were randomly distributed in 8 groups (4 groups/strain) and treated with alcohol, provinol or provinol plus alcohol for 8 weeks (controls received no treatment). After this period the blood pressure was recorded and the working and reference memory tested using a water maze. Results: SHRs displayed higher blood pressure when compared with WKY rats without differences between the experimental groups. On cognitive tasks, despite no significant differences in global working and reference memory performance between SHRs and WKY rats, there was a trend for a worse performance in SHRs in reference memory. A more detailed analysis showed that SHRs used less hippocampal-dependent learning strategies, suggesting a selective impairment of this brain region. Alcohol-treated animals presented a worse performance in both working and reference memory; this effect was ameliorated when alcohol was used with provinol. The use of provinol alone triggered a marginal improvement in working memory of SHRs. Conclusions: Wine polyphenols prevent alcohol-induced cognitive impairment and exert a positive action in working memory in the context of hypertension.