Effect of IL-1ß on hippocampal signalling cascades involve in consolidation of fear memory

GONZALEZ PATRICIA; MACHADO IVANA; CARLA CARUSO; LASAGA MERCEDES; SCIMONELLI TERESA

Huerta Grande

Congreso; XXVI Congreso Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencia; 2011

The effects of cytokines on cognitive processes have been extensively studied. Particularly, IL-1ß administered in dorsal hippocampus significantly impairs the consolidation of a contextual fear memory. The mechanisms by which this inhibition occurs in vivo remains to be elucidated. We previously reported that IL-1ß produced a decrease in glutamate release after contextual fear conditioning. Here we showed that this hypothesis is also sustained by the fact that treatment with D-cycloserine, a partial agonist of the NMDA receptor, reversed the effect of IL-1ß on contextual fear memory. Besides, IL-1ß reduces ERK2 phosphorylation, a MAPK critically involved in memory consolidation. We have demonstrated that ß-MSH reversed the IL-1ß detrimental effect on memory consolidation. Preliminary results demonstrated that ß-MSH reverted the pERK inhibition induced by IL-1ß and produced an increase in BDNF levels after the contextual fear conditioning.