Participation of basolateral amygdala complex astrocytes in different stages of a contextual fear memory

MELILSA RIVA GARGIULO; VICTOR MOLINA; BENDER CRHISTIAN L

Carlos Paz

Congreso; XXXIV Congreso Anual SAN; 2019

IntroductionIn the last decades, the acknowledge of the fundamental contribution of astrocytes to the synaptic functioning and plasticity encouraged the study of the role of astrocyte on behavior. For instance, astrocytes have been found to be essentials partners in several memory paradigms. However, little is known about the role of astrocytes from the basolateral amygdala complex (BLA-C) on the contextual fear conditioning (CFC). Further, if astrocytes play a role in the different stages of memory, i.e. acquisition, consolidation, evocation or reconsolidation, has not been clarified. MethodologyAdult wistar male rats were bilaterally canulated in BLA-C and leave for recovery for 10 days. Then they were infused with fluorocitrate (FLC) -an astroyte metabolic inhibitor- or saline at different times respect to the CFC trial in order to target different stages of memory. Memory was evaluated in the same context after conditioning and the percentage of freezing time (fear response) was used as memory index.ResultsThe group of animals that received FLC before or after CFC showed a significant reduction of freezing during memory testing respective to saline treated controls. When FLC was administered before or after retrieval, the fear index was affected neither during reactivation nor in a further memory test. ConclusionsThe results suggest that BLA-C astrocytes play a role in the acquisition/consolidation phases of a CFC memory. However, a similar astrocytic inhibition during or after retrieval did not alter fear memory, suggesting that they are not critically involved on the recall and memory reconsolidation.