Neuropathological studies on strains of senescence-accelerated mice (SAM) with age-related deficits in learning and memory.

In a series of inbred Senescence-Accelerated mice (SAM) strains, accelerated-senescence prone SAMP substrains show early onset and rapid advancement of senescence. SAMP8 and SAMP10, in particular, exhibit a significant age-related deterioration in memory and learning for passive and active avoidance tasks with, respectively, a low and high incidence of systemic senile amyloidosis. In the brains of both SAMP8 and SAMP10 strains, we have found numerous morphological alterations. Here we review the changes seen in both neuronal or glial components in SAMP8/P10 brains. They may serve as markers of the neuronal degeneration leading to the deficits in learning and memory.