Inhibition of astrocyte function in the basolateral amygdala complex during the acquisition of contextual fear memory

MELILSA RIVA GARGIULO; VICTOR MOLINA; BENDER, CRHISTIAN L.

Modalidad Virtual

Congreso; XXXVII Congreso Anual SAN 2020; 2020

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias

IntroductionIn the last decades, the acknowledge of the fundamental contribution of astrocytes to the synaptic functioning and plasticity promoted the study of the role that astrocyte could have on memory. However, little is known about the role of astrocytes from the basolateral amygdala complex (BLA-C) on the contextual fear conditioning (CFC).MethodsTo target astrocyte function during the CFC we used fluorocitrate (FLC) that selectively and temporally inhibits astrocyte metabolism. Adult wistar male rats were bilaterally canulated in BLA-C and leave for recovery for 10 days. Then they were infused with different doses of FLC (0.5 or 1 nmol/0.5 uL) or saline 60 minutes before conditioning. Memory was evaluated 2 and 4 days after conditioning in the same context using freezing time as fear memory index.ResultsThe groups of animals that received FLC (with both doses) showed a significant reduction of freezing during memory testing respect to saline treated controls. Thus, functional inhibition of BLA-C astrocytes during CFC disrupted the fear memory. ConclusionsThe results suggest that BLA-C astrocytes play a role in the acquisition/consolidation phases of CFC, suggesting that they are critically involved on the formation of fear memories.