Rapid and selective induction of BDNF expression in the hippocampus during contextual learning

Abstract

The hippocampus is required for many forms of long-term memory in both humans and animals¹, and formation of long-lasting memories requires the synthesis of new proteins². Furthermore, the long-term potentiation (LTP) of hippocampal synapses, a widely studied model of memory, also depends on both de novo gene transcription and protein synthesis³ and results in the activation of transcription from promotors containing the cAMP response element (CRE)⁴. Expression of several genes is induced during the establishment of LTP; these include the immediate-early genes (IEGs) BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), zif268 and C/EBPβ (CCAAT-enhancer binding protein β), all of which contain CRE sites within their promotor regions^3,5. However, these genes induced by LTP are not known to be rapidly induced following learning in a natural setting. Here we demonstrate rapid and selective induction of BDNF expression during hippocampus-dependent contextual learning.