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A Possible Role for Protein Synthesis, Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase, and Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor in Long-Term Spatial Memory Retention in the Water Maze
- Publication Year :
- 2008
- Publisher :
- American Psychological Association, 2008.
-
Abstract
- Hippocampal protein synthesis is dependent upon a number of different molecular and cellular mechanisms that act together to make previously labile memories more stable and resistant to disruption. Both brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) are known to play an important role in protein synthesis-dependent memory consolidation, via the mitogen-activated protein-kinase (MAP-K) signaling pathway during the transcription phase of protein synthesis. The current study investigates the influence of protein synthesis inhibition (PSI) by cycloheximide on spatial learning and memory. In an initial experiment, the authors utilized two doses of cycloheximide (0.5 mg/kg and 1.0 mg/kg, intraperitoneally) to determine the dose at which long-term (>24 hours) memories are impaired. A second experiment was designed to investigate the effect of PSI on the formation of cue-platform associations in the watermaze, and on BDNF and ERK expression in the hippocampus. At the higher dose (1.0 mg/kg) cycloheximide resulted in impaired retention of the water maze. BDNF and ERK expression was also down-regulated in animals injected with this dose of cycloheximide. Our results demonstrate a role of protein synthesis in spatial memory retention, along with a possible relationship between protein synthesis and hippocampal BDNF/ERK expression.
- Subjects :
- MAPK/ERK pathway
Male
Water maze
Cycloheximide
Hippocampal formation
Hippocampus
Behavioral Neuroscience
chemistry.chemical_compound
Neurotrophic factors
Memory
Avoidance Learning
Reaction Time
Animals
Rats, Wistar
Extracellular Signal-Regulated MAP Kinases
Maze Learning
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor
Protein Synthesis Inhibitors
Behavior, Animal
Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor
Cell biology
Rats
chemistry
Gene Expression Regulation
Protein Biosynthesis
Space Perception
Memory consolidation
Signal transduction
Neuroscience
Oligopeptides
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....d4fb8b40a39e1055305c51db5599bae2