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The polysialic acid modification of the neural cell adhesion molecule is involved in spatial learning and hippocampal long-term potentiation.
Journal article

The polysialic acid modification of the neural cell adhesion molecule is involved in spatial learning and hippocampal long-term potentiation.

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  • 1996-07-15
Published in:
  • Journal of neuroscience research. - 1996
Analysis of Variance
Animals
Escape Reaction
Glycoside Hydrolases
Hippocampus
Long-Term Potentiation
Male
Maze Learning
Neural Cell Adhesion Molecule L1
Neural Cell Adhesion Molecules
Pyramidal Cells
Rats
Rats, Wistar
Reaction Time
Sialic Acids
English The alpha-2,8-linked polysialic acid (PSA) modification of the neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) modulates morphogenetic cell interactions. PSA is strongly expressed during neural development and generally down-regulated in the adult. However, it remains prominent in some areas of the brain, e.g., the hippocampus. We assayed the functional role(s) of PSA in synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus in two experimental paradigms by removing PSA with endo-neuraminidase NE (endo-N) an enzyme which specifically cleaves alpha-2,8-linked polysialic acid. (1) The acquisition and retention of spatial memory of rats in the Morris water maze, critically dependent on the hippocampus, was significantly impaired after a localized injection of endo-N into the hippocampus, whereas visual and motor capacities were unaffected. (2) Tetanic stimulation of the Schaffer collaterals in endo-N-treated hippocampal slices in vitro failed to elicit LTP and yielded only a short post-tetanic potentiation, but the response returned to control levels within 2 minutes, whereas basal synaptic activity and short-term potentiation were not affected. Our findings suggest that the carbohydrate epitope PSA plays an important role in synaptic plasticity.
Language
  • English
Open access status
closed
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://sonar.ch/global/documents/46925
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