Behavioral training-induced c-Fos expression in the rat nucleus basalis of Meynert during aging.
The present study investigated the behavioral training-induced c-Fos expression in the nucleus basalis of Meynert (nbM) in differently aged rats. This study demonstrated that the c-Fos expression in nbM was significantly increased and the peak occurred at 2 h after dark-avoidance training. Although the increase of c-Fos expression was also observed after pseudotraining, the number of Fos-like immunoreactive neurons in pseudotrained rats was significantly less than that in dark-avoidance trained rats at each time-point. This result suggested that c-Fos expression might be involved in learning and memory processes. In addition, all the pseudotraining-, training- and memory arousing-induced c-Fos expression was decreased with increasing age, and the decrease was more notable in trained and memory aroused rats. This suggested that the total number of nbM neurons and/or the sensitivity of nbM neurons to experimental manipulations, especially learning and memory performance, might reduce during aging.
Zhang
Y Q
YQ
Department of Physiology, Xi'an Medical University, Xi'an, 710061, Shaanxi, China. giriano@online.s.cn
Ji
Y P
YP
Mei
J
J
D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D020532:Basal Nucleus of Meynert / Q000166:cytology / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D003624:Darkness; D004597:Electroshock; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000502:physiology*; D016762:Genes, fos; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D016760:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos / Q000032:analysis*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
D016760:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos