title: Learning and memory in agmatine-treated rats.
abstract: Agmatine, a noncompetitive N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) antagonist, was examined for its role in water maze place learning, contextual and auditory-cued (discrete) fear learning and conditioned taste aversion learning, when administered systemically. Male Wistar rats were given saline or 1, 5, 10 or 50 mg/kg agmatine ip 20 min prior to or 30 min following daily training sessions in a hidden-platform (place learning) water maze task. Agmatine did not affect latencies to find the hidden platform or preference for the training quadrant during probe trials. When administered 20 min prior to contextual or auditory-cued fear-conditioning sessions, these doses of agmatine evoked a linear dose-dependent impairment in the magnitude of learned fear to the contextual stimuli when assessed during extinction trials 24 h later, but had no effect on the magnitude of learned fear to the auditory stimulus. Inferences of baseline motor activity and ability to respond to the presentation of footshock stimuli were not affected by the treatment. Injections of 50 mg/kg agmatine concurrently with a malaise-evoking agent following presentations to a novel sucrose solution abolished learned taste aversions; this agent did not evoke conditioned taste aversions alone. These studies indicate that systemically administered agmatine selectively impairs behavioral inferences of specific types of learning and memory.
authors.affiliation: Behavioral Neuroscience Laboratory, Laurentian University, Sudbury, ON, Canada P3E 2C6. bemckay@ucalgary.ca
authors.forename: B E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: McKay
authors.forename: W E
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Lado
authors.forename: L J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Galic
authors.forename: N M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Fournier
mesh_terms: D000376:Agmatine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D005239:Fear / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D007858:Learning / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D008568:Memory / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D016202:N-Methylaspartate / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013649:Taste / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D016202:N-Methylaspartate; D000376:Agmatine