Changes in C57BL6 Mouse Hippocampal Transcriptome Induced by Hypergravity Mimic Acute Corticosterone-Induced Stress.

Centrifugation is a widely used procedure to study the impact of altered gravity on Earth, as observed during spaceflights, allowing us to understand how a long-term physical constraint can condition the mammalian physiology. It is known that mice, placed in classical cages and maintained during 21 days in a centrifuge at 3G gravity level, undergo physiological adaptations due to hypergravity, and/or stress. Indeed, an increase of corticosterone levels has been previously measured in the plasma of 3G-exposed mice. Corticosterone is known to modify neuronal activity during memory processes. Although learning and memory performances cannot be assessed during the centrifugation, literature largely described a large panel of proteins (channels, second messengers, transcription factors, structural proteins) which expressions are modified during memory processing. Thus, we used the Illumina technology to compare the whole hippocampal transcriptome of three groups of C57Bl6/J mice, in order to gain insights into the effects of hypergravity on cerebral functions. Namely, a group of 21 days 3G-centrifuged mice was compared to (1) a group subjected to an acute corticosterone injection, (2) a group receiving a transdermal chronic administration of corticosterone during 21 days, and (3) aged mice because aging could be characterized by a decrease of hippocampus functions and memory impairment. Our results suggest that hypergravity stress induced by corticosterone administration and aging modulate the expression of genes in the hippocampus. However, the modulations of the transcriptome observed in these conditions are not identical. Hypergravity affects per-se the hippocampus transcriptome and probably modifies its activity. Hypergravity induced changes in hippocampal transcriptome were more similar to acute injection than chronic diffusion of corticosterone or aging.

Up-regulation of ryanodine receptor expression increases the calcium-induced calcium release and spontaneous calcium signals in cerebral arteries from hindlimb unloaded rats.

Microgravity induces a redistribution of blood volume. Consequently, astronauts' body pressure is modified so that the upright blood pressure gradient is abolished, thereby inducing a modification in cerebral blood pressure. This effect is mimicked in the hindlimb unloaded rat model. After a duration of 8 days of unloading, Ca2+ signals activated by depolarization and inositol-1,4,5-trisphosphate intracellular release were increased in cerebral arteries. In the presence of ryanodine and thapsigargin, the depolarization-induced Ca2+ signals remained increased in hindlimb suspended animals, indicating that Ca2+ influx and Ca2+-induced Ca2+ release mechanism were both increased. Spontaneous Ca2+ waves and localized Ca2+ events were also investigated. Increases in both amplitude and frequency of spontaneous Ca2+ waves were measured in hindlimb suspension conditions. After pharmacological segregation of Ca2+ sparks and Ca2+ sparklets, their kinetic parameters were characterized. Hindlimb suspension induced an increase in the frequencies of both Ca2+ localized events, suggesting an increase of excitability. Labeling with bodipy compounds suggested that voltage-dependent Ca2+ channels and ryanodine receptor expressions were increased. Finally, the expression of the ryanodine receptor subtype 1 (RyR1) was increased in hindlimb unloading conditions. Taken together, these results suggest that RyR1 expression and voltage-dependent Ca2+ channels activity are the focal points of the regulation of Ca2+ signals activated by vasoconstriction in rat cerebral arteries with an increase of the voltage-dependent Ca2+ influx.

Learning on Jupiter, learning on the Moon: the dark side of the G-force. Effects of gravity changes on neurovascular unit and modulation of learning and memory.

On earth, gravity vector conditions the development of all living beings by physically imposing an axis along which to build their organism. Thus, during their whole life, they have to fight against this force not only to maintain their architectural organization but also to coordinate the communication between organs and keep their physiology in a balanced steady-state. In space, astronauts show physiological, psychological, and cognitive deregulations, ranging from bone decalcification or decrease of musculature, to depressive-like disorders, and spatial disorientation. Nonetheless, they are confronted to a great amount of physical changes in their environment such as solar radiations, loss of light-dark cycle, lack of spatial landmarks, confinement, and obviously a dramatic decrease of gravity force. It is thus very hard to selectively discriminate the strict role of gravity level alterations on physiological, and particularly cerebral, dysfunction. To this purpose, it is important to design autonomous models and apparatuses for behavioral phenotyping utilizable under modified gravity environments. Our team actually aims at working on this area of research.

Glucocorticoids can induce PTSD-like memory impairments in mice.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is characterized by a hypermnesia of the trauma and by a memory impairment that decreases the ability to restrict fear to the appropriate context. Infusion of glucocorticoids in the hippocampus after fear conditioning induces PTSD-like memory impairments and an altered pattern of neural activation in the hippocampal-amygdalar circuit. Mice become unable to identify the context as the correct predictor of the threat and show fear responses to a discrete cue not predicting the threat in normal conditions. These data demonstrate PTSD-like memory impairments in rodents and identify a potential pathophysiological mechanism of this condition.

Spaceflight regulates ryanodine receptor subtype 1 in portal vein myocytes in the opposite way of hypertension.

Gravity has a structural role for living systems. Tissue development, architecture, and organization are modified when the gravity vector is changed. In particular, microgravity induces a redistribution of blood volume and thus pressure in the astronaut body, abolishing an upright blood pressure gradient, inducing orthostatic hypotension. The present study was designed to investigate whether isolated vascular smooth muscle cells are directly sensitive to altered gravitational forces and, second, whether sustained blood pressure changes act on the same molecular target. Exposure to microgravity during 8 days in the International Space Station induced the decrease of ryanodine receptor subtype 1 expression in primary cultured myocytes from rat hepatic portal vein. Identical results were found in portal vein from mice exposed to microgravity during an 8-day shuttle spaceflight. To evaluate the functional consequences of this physiological adaptation, we have compared evoked calcium signals obtained in myocytes from hindlimb unloaded rats, in which the shift of blood pressure mimics the one produced by the microgravity, with those obtained in myocytes from rats injected with antisense oligonucleotide directed against ryanodine receptor subtype 1. In both conditions, calcium signals implicating calcium-induced calcium release were significantly decreased. In contrast, in spontaneous hypertensive rat, an increase in ryanodine receptor subtype 1 expression was observed as well as the calcium-induced calcium release mechanism. Taken together, our results shown that myocytes were directly sensitive to gravity level and that they adapt their calcium signaling pathways to pressure by the regulation of the ryanodine receptor subtype 1 expression.

Disrupting effect of drug-induced reward on spatial but not cue-guided learning: implication of the striatal protein kinase A/cAMP response element-binding protein pathway.

The multiple memory systems hypothesis posits that different neural circuits function in parallel and may compete for information processing and storage. For example, instrumental conditioning would depend on the striatum, whereas spatial memory may be mediated by a circuit centered on the hippocampus. However, the nature of the task itself is not sufficient to select durably one system over the other. In this study, we investigated the effects of natural and pharmacological rewards on the selection of a particular memory system during learning. We compared the effects of food- or drug-induced activation of the reward system on cue-guided versus spatial learning using a Y-maze discrimination task. Drug-induced reward severely impaired the acquisition of a spatial discrimination task but spared the cued version of the task. Immunohistochemical analysis of the phosphorylated form of the cAMP response element binding (CREB) protein and c-Fos expression induced by behavioral testing revealed that the spatial deficit was associated with a decrease of both markers within the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex. In contrast, drug reward potentiated the cued learning-induced CREB phosphorylation within the dorsal striatum. Administration of the protein kinase A inhibitor 8-Bromo-adenosine-3',5'-cyclic monophosphorothioate Rp isomer (Rp-cAMPS) into the dorsal striatum before training completely reversed the drug-induced spatial deficit and restored CREB phosphorylation levels within the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex. Therefore, drug-induced striatal hyperactivity may underlie the declarative memory deficit reported here. This mechanism could represent an important early step toward the development of addictive behaviors by promoting conditioning to the detriment of more flexible forms of memory.

Spatial memory in the Morris water maze and activation of cyclic AMP response element-binding (CREB) protein within the mouse hippocampus.

We investigated the spatio-temporal dynamics of learning-induced cAMP response element-binding protein activation/phosphorylation (pCREB) in mice trained in a spatial reference memory task in the water maze. Using immunohistochemistry, we examined pCREB immunoreactivity (pCREB-ir) in hippocampal CA1 and CA3 and related brain structures. During the course of spatial learning over Days 1-9, pCREB-ir progressively increased in hippocampal neurons whereas its level in the dorsal striatum decreased. No significant changes were observed in the prelimbic cortex and lateral amygdala. Mice killed at various time points after the last training session demonstrated two waves of pCREB-ir in CA1 and an early transient CREB phosphorylation in area CA3, lateral amygdala, and prelimbic cortex. We show that CREB phosphorylation and downstream gene Zif268 activation remained sustained in CA1 and CA3 for at least 24 h after extended training (Days 8-9) but not during early training (Day 3). The present results indicate that the strong CA1 CREB phosphorylation observed immediately after training was not related strictly to learning or to memory. In contrast, at 15 min after training, the changes in CA1 CREB phosphorylation state were specifically related to individual learning capability. We suggest that hippocampal-learning specificity of CREB is reflected best by duration, rather than magnitude, of CREB phosphorylation.

Alteration of CREB phosphorylation and spatial memory deficits in aged 129T2/Sv mice.

Phosphorylation of cAMP-response element binding protein (CREB) is required for hippocampus-dependent long-term memory formation. The present study was designed to determine whether spatial memory deficits in aged mice were associated with alteration of hippocampal CREB phosphorylation. We examined the temporal pattern of CREB activation in 5-6 and 23-24-month-old 129T2/Sv mice trained on a spatial reference memory task in the water maze. Phosphorylated CREB (pCREB), total CREB (t-CREB) and c-Fos immunoreactivity (ir) were measured at four time points after the end of training. In young mice, pCREB-ir was significantly increased 15 and 60 min after training in the CA1 region and dentate gyrus. In aged mice sacrificed 15 min after training, pCREB-ir in these structures was reduced whereas t-CREB-ir remained unchanged compared to respective young-adults. An age-related reduction of c-Fos-ir also occurred selectively in hippocampal CA1 region. Since reduced pCREB-ir in CA1 from the 15 min-aged group strongly correlated with individual learning performance, we suggest that altered CREB phosphorylation in CA1 may account for spatial memory impairments during normal aging.