NT-3 facilitates hippocampal plasticity and learning and memory by regulating neurogenesis. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • In the adult brain, the expression of NT-3 is largely confined to the hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG), an area exhibiting significant neurogenesis. Using a conditional mutant line in which the NT-3 gene is deleted in the brain, we investigated the role of NT-3 in adult neurogenesis, hippocampal plasticity, and memory. Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU)-labeling experiments demonstrated that differentiation, rather than proliferation, of the neuronal precursor cells (NPCs) was significantly impaired in DG lacking NT-3. Triple labeling for BrdU, the neuronal marker NeuN, and the glial marker GFAP indicated that NT-3 affects the number of newly differentiated neurons, but not glia, in DG. Field recordings revealed a selective impairment in long-term potentiation (LTP) in the lateral, but not medial perforant path-granule neuron synapses. In parallel, the NT-3 mutant mice exhibited deficits in spatial memory tasks. In addition to identifying a novel role for NT-3 in adult NPC differentiation in vivo, our study provides a potential link between neurogenesis, dentate LTP, and spatial memory.

publication date

  • May 16, 2006

Research

keywords

  • Cell Differentiation
  • Dentate Gyrus
  • Long-Term Potentiation
  • Neurons
  • Neurotrophin 3
  • Stem Cells

Identity

PubMed Central ID

  • PMC1475811

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 33744805079

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1101/lm.76006

PubMed ID

  • 16705139

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 13

issue

  • 3