Relationship between cognitive impairment induced by local radiation and morphological changes of hippocampal microglia

To investigate the role of microglia in the process of cognitive impairment caused by local ionizing radiation, eighteen male mice from the institute of cancer research (ICR) were randomly divided into a control group (Control) and a head 10 Gy irradiation group (Irradiation, 10 Gy-IR). The head ionization irradiation group underwent X-ray (Siemens linear accelerator) single head irradiation illuminated to an absorbed dose of 10 Gy. Fifty-six days later, the new and old object recognition test and the new and old place recognition test were used to test the cognitive function of the mice; immunohistochemistry was used to detect the mouse hippocampal microglia marke (IBA-1) change; RT-PCR was used to detect changes at the mRNA level of hippocampal M1/M2 microglia markers (CD16, INOS, CD68, CXCL10, Arg1, CD206). The results showed that compared with the control group, the time discrimination index of new things (p