Data for Radial arm maze tests and Novel object recognition test

Background Aging population is rapidly expanding worldwide, and age-related cognitive impairments proves detrimental for achieving a better productive and quality of life. Lack of effective therapies for age-related cognitive impairment focuses attention on developing preventive strategies, such as nutritional interventions, cell therapies and environmental manipulations. The objective of present study was to explore the comparative benefits of potential memory-enhancing strategies like supplementation of choline and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) or administration of conditioned media derived from human embryonic kidney stem cells (HEK-CM) or exposure to environmental enrichment (EE), that attenuates cognitive impairments in aging mice. Results Spatial memory and cognition were decreased in normal aging mice. Aged mice exposed to dietary Ch-DHA or HEK-CM showed significant enhancement in spatial learning tasks, memory and cognition compared to the same in age-matched NAC mice. Ch-DHA and HEK-CM treated mice committed significantly lesser reference memory errors and attained a higher percentage of correct choices in spatial learning and memory tasks. Moreover, on testing for cognition in NORT, significantly higher number of visits to the novel object was observed in Ch-DHA supplemented and HEK-CM administered aging mice whereas HEK-CM and EE mice groups showed significantly greater number of visits to familiar object, when compared to same in age-matched NAC and HI-HEKCM groups respectively. Conclusion Supplementation of Ch-DHA and HEK CM treatment strategies have a higher potential [~ 20-30%] for enhancing spatial learning, memory and cognition in normal aged mice, whereas exposure to enriched environment seems to enhance only their short term memory.