Galanin Antagonizes Acetylcholine on a Memory Task in Basal Forebrain-Lesioned Rats

Galanin coexists with acetylcholine in medial septal neurons projecting to the ventral hippocampus, a projection thought to modulate memory functions. Neurochemical lesions of the nucleus basalis-medial septal area in rats impaired choice accuracy on a delayed alternation t-maze task. Acetylcholine...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 1988-12, Vol.85 (24), p.9841-9845
Main Authors: Mastropaolo, J., Nadi, N. S., Ostrowski, N. L., Crawley, J. N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acetylcholine - administration & dosage
Acetylcholine - metabolism
Alzheimer Disease - physiopathology
Alzheimers disease
Animals
Atropine
Atropine - pharmacology
Behavioral neuroscience
Behavioral psychophysiology
Biological and medical sciences
Brain - drug effects
Brain - pathology
Cholinergic receptors
Cholinergics
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Galanin
Hippocampus
Injections, Intraventricular
Lesions
Male
Mecamylamine - pharmacology
Memory
Memory - drug effects
Memory disorders
Neurons
Peptides - pharmacology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Rats
Rats, Inbred Strains
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Summary:Galanin coexists with acetylcholine in medial septal neurons projecting to the ventral hippocampus, a projection thought to modulate memory functions. Neurochemical lesions of the nucleus basalis-medial septal area in rats impaired choice accuracy on a delayed alternation t-maze task. Acetylcholine (7.5 or 10 μ g intraventricularly or 1 μ g microinjected into the ventral hippocampus) significantly improved performance in the lesioned rats. Atropine (5 mg/kg intraperitoneally or 10 μ g intraventricularly), but not mecamylamine (3 mg/kg intraperitoneally or 20 μ g intraventricularly), blocked this action of acetylcholine, suggesting involvement of a muscarinic receptor. Galanin (100-500 ng intraventricularly or 200 ng into the ventral hippocampus) attenuated the ability of acetylcholine to reverse the deficit in working memory in the lesioned rats. The antagonistic interaction between galanin and acetylcholine suggests that endogenous galanin may inhibit cholinergic function in memory processes, particularly in pathologies such as Alzheimer disease that involve degeneration of basal forebrain neurons.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.85.24.9841