title: Impaired long-term potentiation and long-term memory deficits in xCT-deficient sut mice.
abstract: xCT is the functional subunit of the cystine/glutamate antiporter system xc-, which exchanges intracellular glutamate with extracellular cystine. xCT has been reported to play roles in the maintenance of intracellular redox and ambient extracellular glutamate, which may affect neuronal function. To assess a potential role of xCT in the mouse hippocampus, we performed fear conditioning and passive avoidance for long-term memories and examined hippocampal synaptic plasticity in wild-type mice and xCT-null mutants, sut mice. Long-term memory was impaired in sut mice. Normal basal synaptic transmission and short-term presynaptic plasticity at hippocampal Schaffer collateral-CA1 synapses were observed in sut mice. However, LTP (long-term potentiation) was significantly reduced in sut mice compared with their wild-type counterparts. Supplementation of extracellular glutamate did not reverse the reduction in LTP. Taken together, our results suggest that xCT plays a role in the modulation of hippocampal long-term plasticity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310058, China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Zhibing
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Zhigang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Zhongsheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Shumin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D027182:Amino Acid Transport System y+ / Q000172:deficiency* / Q000235:genetics; D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning; D005239:Fear; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D017774:Long-Term Potentiation; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology; D051379:Mice; D008809:Mice, Inbred C3H; D009154:Mutation; D009435:Synaptic Transmission
chemical_list: D027182:Amino Acid Transport System y+; C492255:Slc7a11 protein, mouse