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Dementia is one of the most important problems nowadays. Aging is associated with learning and memoryimpairments. Diet rich in cholesterol has been shown to be detrimental to cognitive performance. This work was carried outto compare the effect of high cholesterol diet on the hippocampus of adult and aged male albino rats. Twenty adult and twentyaged male rats were used in this study. According to age, the rats were randomly subdivided into balanced and high cholesteroldiet fed groups. The diet was 15 g/rat/day for adult rats and 20 g/rat/day for aged rats for eight weeks. Serial coronal sectionsof hippocampus and blood samples were taken from each rat. For diet effect evaluation, Clinical, biochemical, histological,immunohistochemical, and morphometric assessments were done. In compare to a balanced diet fed rat, examination of CornuAmmonis 1 (CA 1) area in the hippocampus of the high cholesterol diet adult rats showed degeneration, a significant decreaseof the pyramidal cells, attenuation and/or thickening of small blood vessels, apparent increase of astrocytes and apparentdecrease of Nissl’s granules content. Moreover, the high cholesterol diet aged rats showed aggravation of senility changes ofthe hippocampus together with Alzheimer like pathological changes. In conclusion, the high cholesterol diet has a significantdetrimental effect on the hippocampus and aging might pronounce this effect. So, we should direct our attention to limitcholesterol intake in our food to maintain a healthy life style for a successful aging.
