Autophagy-lysosome dysfunction is involved in Aβ deposition in STZ-induced diabetic rats

•In this research, these findings indicated that diabetes activated autophagy, but lysosome function was impaired.•Autophagy-lysosome dysfunction may be involved in the Aβ deposition in diabetic cognitive impairment.•As the time advanced, the Aβ deposition was getting worse in hippocampus of diabetic rats. β-Amyloid (Aβ) deposition has a central role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer disease (AD). Previous studies have indicated that as a risk factor for AD, diabetes mellitus (DM) could induce Aβ deposition in the brain, but the mechanism is not fully elucidated. Autophagy-lysosome is a cellular pathway involved in protein and organelle degradation. In the present study, we used streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats to investigate whether autophagy-lysosome is related to Aβ1-42 clearance in DM. We found that DM rats had a longer escape latency and less frequent entry into the target zone than that of the control group (p