Nuclear factor kappa B-dependent Zif268 expression in hippocampus is required for recognition memory in mice

Abstract

Long-term memory formation requires gene expression after acquisition of new information. The first step in the regulation of gene expression is the participation of transcription factors (TFs) such as nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kB), which are present before the neuronal activity induced by training. It was proposed that the activation of these types of TFs allows a second step in gene regulation by induction of immediate-early genes (IEGs) whose protein products are, in turn, TFs. Between these IEGs, zif268 has been found to play a critical role in long-term memory formation and reprocessing after retrieval. Here we found in mice hippocampus that, on one hand, NF-kB was activated 45. min after training in a novel object recognition (NOR) task and that inhibiting NF-kB immediately after training by intrahippocampal administration of NF-kB Decoy DNA impaired NOR memory consolidation. On the other hand, Zif268 protein expression was induced 45. min after NOR training and the administration of DNA antisense to its mRNA post-training impaired recognition memory. Finally, we found that the inhibition of NF-kB by NF-kB Decoy DNA reduced significantly the training-induced Zif268 increment, indicating that NF-kB is involved in the regulation of Zif268 expression. Thus, the present results support the involvement of NF-kB activity-dependent Zif268 expression in the hippocampus during recognition memory consolidation.