title: Increases in the numerical density of GAT-1 positive puncta in the barrel cortex of adult mice after fear conditioning.
abstract: Three days of fear conditioning that combines tactile stimulation of a row of facial vibrissae (conditioned stimulus, CS) with a tail shock (unconditioned stimulus, UCS) expands the representation of "trained" vibrissae, which can be demonstrated by labeling with 2-deoxyglucose in layer IV of the barrel cortex. We have also shown that functional reorganization of the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) increases GABAergic markers in the hollows of "trained" barrels of the adult mouse. This study investigated how whisker-shock conditioning (CS+UCS) affected the expression of puncta of a high-affinity GABA plasma membrane transporter GAT-1 in the barrel cortex of mice 24 h after associative learning paradigm. We found that whisker-shock conditioning (CS+UCS) led to increase expression of neuronal and astroglial GAT-1 puncta in the "trained" row compared to controls: Pseudoconditioned, CS-only, UCS-only and Naïve animals. These findings suggest that fear conditioning specifically induces activation of systems regulating cellular levels of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Ewa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Siucinska
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurochemistry, Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hamed
authors.affiliation: Department of Histology, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Krakow, Poland.
authors.forename: Malgorzata
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jasinska
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001253:Astrocytes / Q000378:metabolism; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D049229:Dendritic Spines / Q000473:pathology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D050485:GABA Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D007765:Lacrimal Apparatus / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D013312:Stress, Physiological
chemical_list: D050485:GABA Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins; C493414:Slc6a1 protein, mouse