title: Prelimbic cortex extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 activation is required for memory retrieval of long-term inhibitory avoidance.
abstract: Neural mechanism underlying memory retrieval has been extensively studied in the hippocampus and amygdala. However, little is known about the role of medial prefrontal cortex in long-term memory retrieval. We evaluate this issue in one-trial step-through inhibitory avoidance (IA) paradigm. Our results showed that, 1) inactivation of mPFC by local infusion of GABAA-receptor agonist muscimol caused severe deficits in retrieval of 1-day and 7-day but had no effects on 2-h inhibitory avoidance memory; 2) the protein level of phosphorylated-ERK1/2 in mPFC were significantly increased following retrieval of 1-day and 7-day IA memory, so did the numbers of phosphorylated-ERK (pERK) and phosphorylated-CREB (pCREB) labeled neurons; 3) intra-mPFC infusion of ERK kinase inhibitor PD98095 significantly reduced phosphorylated ERK1/2 levels and phosphorylated-ERK1/2 and phosphorylated-CREB labeled cells, and severely impaired retrieval of 7-day IA memory when the drugs were administrated 30min prior to test. The present study provides evidence that retrieval of long-lasting memory for inhibitory avoidance requires mPFC and involves the ERK-CREB signaling cascade.
authors.affiliation: Center for Neuropsychiatric Diseases, Institute of Life Science, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330031, China.
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Center for Neuropsychiatric Diseases, Institute of Life Science, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330031, China; Department of Forensic Medicine, Medical College of Nanchang University, Nanchang 330031, China.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Center for Neuropsychiatric Diseases, Institute of Life Science, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330031, China.
authors.forename: Xuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Center for Neuropsychiatric Diseases, Institute of Life Science, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330031, China.
authors.forename: Wei-Ke
authors.initials: WK
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: Center for Neuropsychiatric Diseases, Institute of Life Science, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330031, China.
authors.forename: Bao Ming
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neurobiology and State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China. Electronic address: LiuFang_1961@126.com.
authors.forename: Fang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000679:Amygdala / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000187:drug effects; D050882:CREB-Binding Protein; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000378:metabolism; D065726:Limbic Lobe / Q000378:metabolism; D020935:MAP Kinase Signaling System; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D057567:Memory, Long-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D048052:Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase 3 / Q000378:metabolism; D009118:Muscimol / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000378:metabolism; D010766:Phosphorylation; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D009118:Muscimol; D050882:CREB-Binding Protein; D048052:Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase 3
keywords: CREB; ERK; Inhibitory avoidance; Medial prefrontal cortex; Memory retrieval; Rat