Catuara Solarz, Silvina, 1986-Espinosa-Carrasco, JoséErb, IonasLangohr, KlausNotredame, CedricGonzález Ruiz, Juan RamónDierssen, Mara2016-02-042016-02-042015Catuara-Solarz S, Espinosa-Carrasco J, Erb I, Langohr K, Notredame C, Gonzalez JR. et al. Principal component analysis of the effects of environmental enrichment and (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate on age-associated learning deficits in a mouse model of down syndrome. Front Behav Neurosci. 2015 Dec 11;9:330. DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2015.003301662-5153http://hdl.handle.net/10230/25732Down syndrome (DS) individuals present increased risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD) neuropathology and AD-type dementia. Here, we investigated the use of green tea extracts containing (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), as co-adjuvant to enhance the effects of environmental enrichment (EE) in Ts65Dn mice, a segmental trisomy model of DS that partially mimics DS/AD pathology, at the age of initiation of cognitive decline. Classical repeated measures ANOVA showed that combined EE-EGCG treatment was more efficient than EE or EGCG alone to improve specific spatial learning related variables. Using principal component analysis (PCA) we found that several spatial learning parameters contributed similarly to a first PC and explained a large proportion of the variance among groups, thus representing a composite learning measure. This PC1 revealed that EGCG or EE alone had no significant effect. However, combined EE-EGCG significantly ameliorated learning alterations of middle age Ts65Dn mice. Interestingly, PCA revealed an increased variability along learning sessions with good and poor learners in Ts65Dn, and this stratification did not disappear upon treatments. Our results suggest that combining EE and EGCG represents a viable therapeutic approach for amelioration of age-related cognitive decline in DS, although its efficacy may vary across individuals.application/pdfeng© 2015 Catuara-Solarz, Espinosa-Carrasco, Erb, Langohr, Notredame, Gonzalez and Dierssen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.Down, Síndrome deAlzheimer, Malaltia d'info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00330info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess