Morris water maze learning in two rat strains increases the expression of the polysialylated form of the neural cell adhesion molecule in the dentate gyrus but has no effect on hippocampal neurogenesis.
In the current study, the authors investigated whether Morris water maze learning induces alterations in hippocampal neurogenesis or neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) polysialylation in the dentate gyrus. Two frequently used rat strains, Wistar and Sprague-Dawley, were trained in the spatial or the nonspatial version of the water maze. Both training paradigms did not have an effect on survival of newly formed cells that were labeled 7-9 days prior to the training or on progenitor proliferation in the subgranular zone. However, the granule cell layer of the spatially trained rats contained significantly more positive cells of the polysialylated form of the NCAM. These data demonstrate that Morris water maze learning causes plastic change in the dentate gyrus without affecting hippocampal neurogenesis.
Van der Borght
Karin
K
Department of Molecular Neurobiology, Graduate School of Behavioral and Cognitive Neurosciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands. k.van.der.borght@rug.nl
Wallinga
Alinde E
AE
Luiten
Paul G M
PG
Eggen
Bart J L
BJ
Van der Zee
Eddy A
EA
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D001973:Bromodeoxyuridine / Q000378:metabolism; D002452:Cell Count / Q000379:methods; D018891:Dentate Gyrus / Q000378:metabolism*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000502:physiology*; D007150:Immunohistochemistry / Q000379:methods; D019394:Ki-67 Antigen / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D039842:Neural Cell Adhesion Molecule L1 / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012794:Sialic Acids / Q000378:metabolism*; D013037:Spatial Behavior / Q000502:physiology*
D019394:Ki-67 Antigen; D039842:Neural Cell Adhesion Molecule L1; D012794:Sialic Acids; C103469:polysialyl neural cell adhesion molecule; D001973:Bromodeoxyuridine