title: Gene regulation in the rat prefrontal cortex after learning with or without cholinergic insult.
abstract: The prefrontal cortex is essential for a wide variety of higher functions, including attention and memory. Cholinergic neurons are thought to be of prime importance in the modulation of these processes. Degeneration of forebrain cholinergic neurons has been linked to several neurological disorders. The present study was designed to identify genes and networks in rat prefrontal cortex that are associated with learning and cholinergic-loss-memory deficit. Affymetrix microarray technology was used to screen gene expression changes in rats submitted or not to 192 IgG-saporin immunolesion of cholinergic basal forebrain and trained in spatial/object novelty tasks. Results showed learning processes were associated with significant expression of genes, which were organized in several clusters of highly correlated genes and would be involved in biological processes such as intracellular signaling process, transcription regulation, and filament organization and axon guidance. Memory loss following cortical cholinergic deafferentation was associated with significant expression of genes belonging to only one clearly delineated cluster and would be involved in biological processes related to cytoskeleton organization and proliferation, and glial and vascular remodeling, i.e., in processes associated with brain repair after injury.
authors.affiliation: Université d'Aix-Marseille I, Laboratoire de Neurosciences Intégratives et Adaptatives, UMR/CNRS 6149, 3 Place Victor Hugo, 13331 Marseille Cedex 03, France. veronique.paban@univ-provence.fr
authors.forename: Véronique
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Paban
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chambon
authors.forename: Fernand
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Farioli
authors.forename: Béatrice
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Alescio-Lautier
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D018678:Cholinergic Agents; D002799:Cholinergic Fibers / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D009410:Nerve Degeneration / Q000139:chemically induced; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000032:analysis; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D054789:Ribosome Inactivating Proteins, Type 1; D000076985:Saporins; D013037:Spatial Behavior / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: C085696:192 IgG-saporin; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D018678:Cholinergic Agents; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D054789:Ribosome Inactivating Proteins, Type 1; D000076985:Saporins