Question

A group of scientists is studying memory in mice. they feed sodium butyrate, a histone deacetylase inhibitor, to a group of older mice and then subject them to memory exercises. how do you predict the memory of treated mice might compare with the memory of untreated mice? histone acetylation increases with age, so sodium butyrate may improve memory in older mice. histone acetylation increases with age, so sodium butyrate may impair memory in older mice. histone acetylation decreases with age, so sodium butyrate may improve memory in older mice. histone acetylation decreases with age, so sodium butyrate may impair memory in older mice. histone acetylation is not associated with memory in mice.

Answer 1

The answer is histone acetylation decreases with age, so sodium butyrate may improve memory in older mice

This is because Histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors increase histone acetylation and enhance both memory and synaptic plasticity of brain neurons. It also regulates cell proliferation and neuroblast differentiation in the dentate gyrus hence improve memory function especially the hippocampus-dependent memory.