Background: Chronic diabetes mellitus is accompanied with disturbances in learning, memory, and cognitive skills. Noticing the existing evidence regarding the anti-diabetic potential of hesperetin, the effect of its chronic administration on learning and memory in diabetic rats was investigated. Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, 40 male Wistar rats were divided into control, hesperetin-treated control, diabetic, and hesperetin/glibenclamide-treated diabetic groups. For evaluation of learning and memory, initial (IL) and step-through latencies (STL) were determined at the end of the study using passive avoidance test, and the alternation behavior percentage was obtained using Y maze.
Results: STL significantly decreased in the diabetic (p<0.01) and hesperetin-treated diabetic (p<0.05) groups in comparison to the control group; however, the difference between these two groups was not significant. Alternation percentage in the diabetic group was significantly lower in comparison to the control group (p<0.05), but the hesperetin-treated diabetic group revealed a significant difference in comparison to the diabetic group (p<0.05).
Conclusion: Although long-term treatment with hesperetin does not enhance the capability of retention and recall in diabetic animals on the passive avoidance test, it can improve the short-term spatial memory in diabetic animals.