title: Histamine reverses a memory deficit induced in rats by early postnatal maternal deprivation.
abstract: Early partial maternal deprivation causes long-lasting neurochemical, behavioral and brain structural effects. In rats, it causes a deficit in memory consolidation visible in adult life. Some of these deficits can be reversed by donepezil and galantamine, which suggests that they may result from an impairment of brain cholinergic transmission. One such deficit, representative of all others, is an impairment of memory consolidation, clearly observable in a one-trial inhibitory avoidance task. Recent data suggest a role of brain histaminergic systems in the regulation of behavior, particularly inhibitory avoidance learning. Here we investigate whether histamine itself, its analog SKF-91844, or various receptor-selective histamine agonists and antagonists given into the CA1 region of the hippocampus immediately post-training can affect retention of one-trial inhibitory avoidance in rats submitted to early postnatal maternal deprivation. We found that histamine, SKF-91844 and the H2 receptor agonist, dimaprit enhance consolidation on their own and reverse the consolidation deficit induced by maternal deprivation. The enhancing effect of histamine was blocked by the H2 receptor antagonist, ranitidine, but not by the H1 receptor antagonist pyrilamine or by the H3 antagonist thioperamide given into CA1 at doses known to have other behavioral actions, without altering locomotor and exploratory activity or the anxiety state of the animals. The present results suggest that the memory deficit induced by early postnatal maternal deprivation in rats may in part be due to an impairment of histamine mediated mechanisms in the CA1 region of the rat hippocampus.
authors: Centro de Memória, Instituto do Cérebro, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Avenida Ipiranga 6690, 2° andar, Porto Alegre, RS 90610-000, Brazil.
authors: Fernando
authors: F
authors: Benetti
authors: Clarice Kras Borges
authors: CK
authors: da Silveira
authors: Weber Cláudio
authors: WC
authors: da Silva
authors: Martín
authors: M
authors: Cammarota
authors: Iván
authors: I
authors: Izquierdo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001007:Anxiety / Q000503:physiopathology; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D056547:CA1 Region, Hippocampal / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006632:Histamine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D017442:Histamine Agonists / Q000494:pharmacology; D006633:Histamine Antagonists / Q000494:pharmacology; D008426:Maternal Deprivation; D008568:Memory / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011899:Ranitidine / Q000494:pharmacology; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
chemical_list: D017442:Histamine Agonists; D006633:Histamine Antagonists; D006632:Histamine; D011899:Ranitidine