The effect of nerve growth factor on supporting spatial memory depends upon hippocampal cholinergic innervation.

ABSTRACT: Nerve growth factor (NGF) gene therapy has been used in clinical trials of Alzheimer's disease. Understanding the underlying mechanisms of how NGF influences memory may help develop new strategies for treatment. Both NGF and the cholinergic system play important roles in learning and memory. NGF is essential for maintaining cholinergic innervation of the hippocampus, but it is unclear whether the supportive effect of NGF on learning and memory is specifically dependent upon intact hippocampal cholinergic innervation. Here we characterize the behavior and hippocampal measurements of volume, neurogenesis, long-term potentiation, and cholinergic innervation, in brain-specific Ngf-deficient mice. Our results show that knockout mice exhibit increased anxiety, impaired spatial learning and memor

SUBMITTER: Eu WZ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7961060 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature