Abstract
Object recognition memory allows discrimination between novel and familiar objects. This kind of memory consists of two components: recollection, which depends on the hippocampus, and familiarity, which depends on the perirhinal cortex (Pcx). The importance of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) for recognition memory has already been recognized. Recent evidence suggests that DNA methylation regulates the expression of BDNF and memory. Behavioral and molecular approaches were used to understand the potential contribution of DNA methylation to recognition memory. To that end, rats were tested for their ability to distinguish novel from familiar objects by using a spontaneous object recognition task. Furthermore, the level of DNA methylation was estimated after trials with a methyl-sensitive PCR. We found a significant correlation between performance on the novel object task and the expression of BDNF, negatively in hippocampal slices and positively in perirhinal cortical slices. By contrast, methylation of DNA in CpG island 1 in the promoter of exon 1 in BDNF only correlated in hippocampal slices, but not in the Pxc cortical slices from trained animals. These results suggest that DNA methylation may be involved in the regulation of the BDNF gene during recognition memory, at least in the hippocampus.
Highlights
Recognition memory (RM) corresponds to the ability to remember an object that has been previously presented (O’Neil et al, 2009), and depends on the perirhinal, parahippocampal / postrhinal and entorhinal cortices (Lavenex et al, 2002).Object recognition memory allows discrimination between novel and familiar objects and considers at least two processes: recollection and familiarity (Squire et al, 2007)
The goal of this study was to examine the role of DNA methylation in recognition memory and to determine which temporal lobe structures could be involved in this type of memory
We addressed the putative role of DNA methylation on gene expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and its involvement with the medial temporal lobe structures during recognition memory encoding
Summary
Recognition memory (RM) corresponds to the ability to remember an object that has been previously presented (O’Neil et al, 2009), and depends on the perirhinal, parahippocampal / postrhinal and entorhinal cortices (Lavenex et al, 2002).Object recognition memory allows discrimination between novel and familiar objects and considers at least two processes: recollection and familiarity (Squire et al, 2007). Recollection involves the successful retrieval of the contextual details that accompanied the learning episode; familiarity involves knowing that an item was presented. It is still not clear which temporal lobe structures are directly involved in both recollection and familiarity, it has been proposed that recollection depends on the hippocampus (Wais et al, 2009), whereas familiarity depends on the adjacent Pcx (Haskins et al, 2008). It has been shown that lentivirus-Cre-infected animals, with BDNF deletions in the dorsal hippocampus, exhibit an impaired ability to recognize, suggesting that BDNF expression in adult hippocampus is involved in the encoding or consolidation of some component of object recognition memory (Heldt et al, 2007)
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