REM sleep deprivation attenuates actin-binding protein cortactin: a link between sleep and hippocampal plasticity
Abstract
Rapid eye-movement sleep (REMS) is thought to affect synaptic plasticity. Cortactin is a cytoskeletal protein critically involved in the regulation of actin branching and stabilization including the actin backbone of dendritic spines. Hippocampal cortactin levels, phosphorylation, and processing appear to be altered during learning and long-term potentiation (LTP); consistent with a role for cortactin in the dendritic restructuring that accompanies synaptic plasticity. In this study juvenile male Sprague-Dawley rats were selectively REMS-deprived (RD) for 48 h by the flowerpot method. Cage control (CC) and large pedestal control (PC) animals were used for comparison. Animals were euthanized immediately, or 12 h, after removal from the pedestal. The hippocampus was dissected, flash-frozen, and stored for subsequent Western blot or quantitative RT-PCR analysis of cortactin. Cortactin mRNA/cDNA levels initially rose in PC and RD rats but returned to CC levels by 12 h after removal from the pedestal. Predictably cortactin protein levels were initially unchanged but were up-regulated after 12 h. The PC group had more total and tyrosine-phosphorylated cortactin protein expression than the RD and CC groups. This increase in cortactin ...Continue Reading
References
Brainstem prolactin mRNA is enhanced in mice with suppressed neuronal nitric oxide synthase activity
Citations
Related Concepts
Related Feeds
Actin-binding Proteins
Actin-binding proteins are a component of the actin cytoskeleton that play essential roles in cellular functions such as regulation of actin polymerization, maintenance of cell polarity, gene expression regulation, cell motility and many more functions. Discover the latest research on actin-binding proteins here.