title: Involvement of hippocampal extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 in spatial working memory in rats.
abstract: The role of the phosphorylation of hippocampal extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 in spatial working memory in rats was assessed with a delayed spatial win-shift task in a radial arm maze. The task consisted of two phases, a training phase and a test phase, separated by a delay. Phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 levels were significantly and transiently increased in the hippocampus by 60 min, and then returned to the control levels 120 min after the training phase. Bilateral microinjections of the PD98059, an inhibitor of the extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 kinase MEK, into the hippocampus impaired performance in the test phase of the delayed spatial win-shift task at 5-min delay. These results suggest that extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 activation in the hippocampus plays a crucial role in spatial working memory.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Neuropsychopharmacology, Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Department of Neuropsychopharmacology and Hospital Pharmacy, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan.
authors.forename: Taku
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nagai
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kamei
authors.forename: Misato
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dohniwa
authors.forename: Masanori
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Takayanagi
authors.forename: Masakazu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Takahiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Matsuya
authors.forename: Toshitaka
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nabeshima
authors.forename: Kazuhiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Takuma
authors.forename: Kiyofumi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yamada
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D015153:Blotting, Western / Q000379:methods; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology; D005419:Flavonoids / Q000494:pharmacology; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000201:enzymology*; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D008845:Microinjections / Q000379:methods; D048052:Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase 3 / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000187:drug effects; D013037:Spatial Behavior / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
chemical_list: D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors; D005419:Flavonoids; D048052:Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase 3; C093973:2-(2-amino-3-methoxyphenyl)-4H-1-benzopyran-4-one