Expression of caveolin-1 protein in the rat brain and its role in the discriminationlearning
ZOU Wei, WANG Hong-Xia, LIU Jing, ZHANG Hong, AN Li-Jia
College of Life Science, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116029, China； Institute of Bioengineering, Dalian Technology University, Dalian 116024, China
Abstract
Caveolin-1 (Cav-1) is a marker protein for caveolae, and acts as scaffolding protein to regulate the activities of signalingmolecules. Previous studies indicate that Cav-1 mainly locates at the base of axonal and dendritic terminals of mouse primaryhippocampal neurons and plays an active role in the regulation of injury-induced synaptic and terminal remodeling in central nervoussystem. The aim of this study was to identify the expression profile of Cav-1 protein in the brains of rats at different ages and toinvestigate the role of Cav-1 in Y-maze bright-dark discrimination learning (BDL). Firstly, the expressions of Cav-1 in the brains ofyoung (1-month), adult (3-month) and aged (22-month) rats were observed by Western blot. Higher expression in the hippocampus andlower expression in the cortex were shown in the adult rats. It was also found that the score of BDL was related with the expression levelof Cav-1. Secondly, using open-field test for spontaneous locomotor activities (SLA) and BDL, the role of Cav-1 in the learning andmemory was observed. Compared with that in the control adult group, the Cav-1 protein expression in the hippocampus and prefrontalcortex of Y-maze trained adult rats significantly increased, while no marked changes in the cerebellum. These results suggest that Cav-1protein is involved in BDL and plays an important role in the plasticity of central nervous system.
Key words: caveolin-1; rat; brain; Y-maze discrimination learning
Received: Accepted:
Corresponding author: 邹伟 E-mail: weizou60@hotmail.com
Citing This Article：
ZOU Wei, WANG Hong-Xia, LIU Jing, ZHANG Hong, AN Li-Jia. Expression of caveolin-1 protein in the rat brain and its role in the discriminationlearning. Acta Physiol Sin 2006; 58 (5): 429-434 (in Chinese with English abstract).
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