title: Intrahippocampal administration of BDNF in adult rats affects short-term behavioral plasticity in the Morris water maze and performance in the elevated plus-maze.
abstract: The present study evaluated the effects of a single intrahippocampal administration of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) on memory retention in a water maze. Adult rats were trained in a water maze (acquisition phase, day 1). Immediately after the last training trial subjects were injected in the right hippocampus with either BDNF (24 microg) or phosphate-buffered saline (1 microl). On day 2, all subjects were tested for memory retention in a probe trial and were subsequently tested for reversal learning. While no differences emerged in the probe trial, BDNF-treated subjects showed a shorter latency and a shorter path length to reach the platform during the reversal phase. A significant difference in their "turn angle" and in their swim paths suggests that they might have used a different search strategy compared with controls. Moreover, all subjects also underwent an elevated-plus maze test. BDNF-treated-animals showed a clear tendency to spend a greater amount of time in the open arms and a significantly higher frequency of grooming behavior and of the stretched-attend posture in this maze area, but no differences in locomotion. Overall, these results indicate that administration of BDNF improves performance in a spatial memory task and has enduring effects on emotional behavior.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology and Neurosciences, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy. cirulli@iss.it
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cirulli
authors.forename: Alessandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Berry
authors.forename: Flavia
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chiarotti
authors.forename: Enrico
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Alleva
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects*; D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006120:Grooming / Q000187:drug effects; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000187:drug effects*; D008845:Microinjections; D009414:Nerve Growth Factors / Q000494:pharmacology; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor; D009414:Nerve Growth Factors