Mammary tumors induce select cognitive impairments.
Cancer, in addition to many other chronic diseases, is associated with serious and problematic behavioral symptoms, including cognitive impairments. In humans, various factors likely contribute to cancer-associated cognitive deficits including disease awareness and chemotherapy; however, the endogenous biological factors arising from tumor development may also play a causal role. In the present study, rats with mammary tumors exhibited impaired spatial reference memory on a radial arm maze and amnesia for familiar objects in an object recognition memory test. In contrast, their performance in the Morris water maze and in fear conditioning tests was comparable to that of controls. These select cognitive impairments were accompanied by elevations in hippocampal interleukin-1beta mRNA expression, but were not associated with decreases in hippocampal brain-derived neurotrophic factor gene expression. Together the results indicate that peripheral tumors alone are sufficient to induce increases in hippocampal cytokine expression and select deficits in hippocampal-dependent memory tasks.
Pyter
Leah M
LM
Department of Psychology, Institute for Mind and Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. pyter@uchicago.edu
Cochrane
Sally F
SF
Ouwenga
Rebecca L
RL
Patel
Priyesh N
PN
Pineros
Vanessa
V
Prendergast
Brian J
BJ
D000818:Animals; D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D016207:Cytokines / Q000096:biosynthesis; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000378:metabolism; D036341:Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D053583:Interleukin-1beta / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology; D008325:Mammary Neoplasms, Experimental / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D018782:Maze Learning; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor; D016207:Cytokines; D036341:Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; D053583:Interleukin-1beta