title: Hippocampal 72-kDa heat shock protein expression varies according to mice learning performance independently from chronic exposure to stress.
abstract: The possibility that the inducible 72-kDa heat shock protein (hsp72) is involved in learning-related plasticity mechanisms was investigated in two inbred strains of mice that show spontaneous differences in spatial learning performance as well as an opposite reactivity to stress. Induction of hsp72 after radial maze training was measured by immunoblotting in the hippocampus of C57BL/6 (C57) and DBA/2 (DBA) inbred mice exposed or nonexposed to chronic acoustic stress. In agreement with previous studies, inter-strain differences in radial maze performance were found in nonstressed mice with C57 mice showing the higher scores. Chronic acoustic stress, however, impaired performance in the high-learner C57 strain and improved performance in the low-learner DBA strain. Western blot analysis revealed that post-training expression of hsp72 was low in the condition each strain was showing the higher-performance (nonstressed C57 and stressed DBA) and high in the condition each strain was showing the lower performance (stressed C57 and nonstressed DBA). These findings indicate that expression of hsp72 in the hippocampus varies as a function of the learning performance independently from exposure to chronic acoustic stress.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Medicine and Biochemical Sciences, Division of Cellular and Molecular Biology, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy.
authors.forename: Maria Vittoria
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Ambrosini
authors.forename: Giuseppina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mariucci
authors.forename: Michela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tantucci
authors.forename: Lenneke
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Van Hooijdonk
authors.forename: Martine
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ammassari-Teule
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D001835:Body Weight / Q000502:physiology; D050884:HSP72 Heat-Shock Proteins; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000378:metabolism*; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000502:physiology; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008811:Mice, Inbred DBA; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D013045:Species Specificity; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000503:physiopathology
chemical_list: D050884:HSP72 Heat-Shock Proteins; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins