Virus-mediated gene transfer into hippocampal CA1 region restores long-term potentiation in brain-derived neurotrophic factor mutant mice.
Long-term potentiation (LTP) has been shown to be impaired in mice deficient in the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene, as well as in a number of other knockout animals. Despite its power the gene-targeting approach is always fraught with the danger of looking at the cumulative direct and indirect effects of the absence of a particular gene rather than its immediate function. The re-expression of a specific gene at a selective time point and at a specific site in gene-defective mutants presents a potent procedure to overcome this limitation and to evaluate the causal relationship between the absence of a particular gene and the impairment of a function in gene-defective animals. Here we demonstrate that the re-expression of the BDNF gene in the CA1 region almost completely restores the severely impaired LTP in hippocampal slices of BDNF-deficient mice. The results therefore provide strong evidence for the direct involvement of BDNF in the process of LTP.
Max-Planck-Institut für Psychiatrie, München-Martinsried, Germany.
M
M
Korte
O
O
Griesbeck
C
C
Gravel
P
P
Carroll
V
V
Staiger
H
H
Thoenen
T
T
Bonhoeffer
D000256:Adenoviridae; D000818:Animals; D015152:Blotting, Northern; D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D018014:Gene Transfer Techniques; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000378:metabolism*; D017774:Long-Term Potentiation; D051379:Mice; D008817:Mice, Mutant Strains
D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor