Abstract
Buckwheat is an important pseudo-cereal crop worldwide. This study investigated whether long-term administration of buckwheat can suppress age-related cognitive decline in senescence-accelerated mouse prone 8 (SAMP8) mice. For 26 weeks, 18-week-old male SAMP8 mice were fed a standard diet containing 5% (w/w) buckwheat, Tartary buckwheat, wheat, or rice flour. In the Barnes maze and passive avoidance tests, mice fed buckwheat whole flour (BWF) showed improved cognitive performance compared to those fed a control diet, while no improvement was noticed in case of the other diets. Analysis of the gut microbiota showed that BWF and buckwheat outer flour administration increased the abundance of Lactococcus and Ruminiclostridium, respectively, at the genus level. The expression levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), postsynaptic Arc and PSD95, and the mature neuronal marker NeuN in the hippocampus were increased after BWF administration, which was induced by the activation of the ERK/CREB signaling pathway and histone H3 acetylation. A similar increase in cognitive performance-related hippocampal BDNF expression in SAMP8 mice was observed after the oral administration of starch prepared from BWF. Therefore, the long-term administration of BWF suppresses cognitive decline by increasing hippocampal BDNF production in SAMP8 mice.