| First Author | Balschun D | Year | 2003 |
| Journal | J Neurosci | Volume | 23 |
| Issue | 15 | Pages | 6304-14 |
| PubMed ID | 12867515 | Mgi Jnum | J:84481 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:2667787 | Doi | 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.23-15-06304.2003 |
| Citation | Balschun D, et al. (2003) Does cAMP response element-binding protein have a pivotal role in hippocampal synaptic plasticity and hippocampus-dependent memory?. J Neurosci 23(15):6304-14 |
| abstractText | Previous studies addressing the role of the transcription factor cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB) in mammalian long-term synaptic plasticity and memory by gene targeting were compromised by incomplete deletion of the CREB isoforms. Therefore, we generated conditional knock-out strains with a marked reduction or complete deletion of all CREB isoforms in the hippocampus. In these strains, no deficits could be detected in lasting forms of hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD). When tested for hippocampus-dependent learning, mutants showed normal context-dependent fear conditioning. Water maze learning was impaired during the early stages, but many mutants showed satisfactory scores in probe trials thought to measure hippocampus-dependent spatial memory. However, conditioned taste aversion learning, a putatively hippocampus-independent memory test, was markedly impaired. Our data indicate that in the adult mouse brain, loss of CREB neither prevents learning nor substantially affects performance in some hippocampus-dependent tasks. Furthermore, it spares LTP and LTD in paradigms that are sensitive enough to detect deficits in other mutants. This implies either a species-specific or regionally restricted role of CREB in the brain and/or a compensatory upregulation of the cAMP response element modulator (CREM) and other as yet unidentified transcription factors. |
