Cognitive decline is associated with reduced surface GluR1 expression in the hippocampus of aged rats

•Aged rats were separated into aged-umimpaired and aged-impaired rats.•Surface GluR1 expression in hippocampal CA1 is reduced in aged-impaired rats.•Lower surface GluR1 level is associated with worse behavioral performance. Individual differences in cognitive aging exist in humans and in rodent popu...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Neuroscience letters 2015-03, Vol.591, p.176-181
Main Authors: Yang, Yuan-Jian, Chen, Hai-Bo, Wei, Bo, Wang, Wei, Zhou, Ping-Liang, Zhan, Jin-Qiong, Hu, Mao-Rong, Yan, Kun, Hu, Bin, Yu, Bin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aging
Aging - metabolism
Aging - psychology
AMPA receptor
Animals
Cognition
Cognition Disorders - metabolism
Cognitive decline
GluR1
Hippocampus
Hippocampus - metabolism
Male
Maze Learning
Phosphorylation
Rats, Sprague-Dawley
Receptors, AMPA - metabolism
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:•Aged rats were separated into aged-umimpaired and aged-impaired rats.•Surface GluR1 expression in hippocampal CA1 is reduced in aged-impaired rats.•Lower surface GluR1 level is associated with worse behavioral performance. Individual differences in cognitive aging exist in humans and in rodent populations, yet the underlying mechanisms remain largely unclear. Activity-dependent delivery of GluR1-containing AMPA receptor (AMPARs) plays an essential role in hippocampal synaptic plasticity, learning and memory. We hypothesize that alterations of surface GluR1 expression in the hippocampus might correlate with age-related cognitive decline. To test this hypothesis, the present study evaluated the cognitive function of young adult and aged rats using Morris water maze. After the behavioral test, the surface expression of GluR1 protein in hippocampal CA1 region of rats was determined using Western blotting. The results showed that the surface expression of GluR1 in the hippocampus of aged rats that are cognitively impaired was much lower than that of young adults and aged rats with preserved cognitive abilities. The phosphorylation levels of GluR1 at Ser845 and Ser831 sites, which promote the synaptic delivery of GluR1, were also selectively decreased in the hippocampus of aged-impaired rats. Correlation analysis reveals that greater decrease in surface GluR1 expression was associated with worse behavioral performance. These results suggest that reduced surface GluR1 expression may contribute to cognitive decline that occurs in normal aging, and different pattern of surface GluR1 expression might be responsible for the individual differences in cognitive aging.
ISSN:0304-3940
1872-7972
DOI:10.1016/j.neulet.2015.02.030