Research reportHippocampal protein kinase C family members in spatial memory retrieval in the mouse

- We propose a unique role for hippocampal PKC gamma in spatial memory retrieval in the CD1 mouse.
- Other PKC family members are not linked to spatial memory retrieval.
- Cave: PKC isoforms may present with more than one band on immunoblotting in the hippocampus.

Although a few individual members of the protein kinase C (PKC) family were studied in spatial memory no systematic approach was carried out to concomitantly determine all described PKC family members in spatial memory of the mouse. It was therefore the aim of the current study to link hippocampal PKCs to memory retrieval in the Morris water maze (MWM).CD1 mice were trained (n = 9) or untrained (n = 9) in the MWM, hippocampi were taken 6 h following the test for memory retrieval and PKCs were determined in mouse hippocampi by immunoblotting. The trained animals learned the spatial memory task and kept memory at the probe trial. PKCs alpha and epsilon were comparable between groups while PKCs beta, delta, gamma (two forms, i.e. two bands on Western blotting), zeta (2 forms) were higher in trained mice and theta (2 forms) were lower in trained mice. PKC gamma (1 form) was significantly correlating with the time spent in the target quadrant (r = 0.7933; P = 0.0188). Changes of hippocampal levels of PKCs beta, delta, gamma, zeta and theta were paralleling memory retrieval of the MWM task but correlations revealed that spatial memory retrieval was only linked to one form of PKC gamma. Results are also in agreement with a recent publication showing that PKM zeta is not required for memory formation. These findings may be relevant for the interpretation of previous work and the design of future work on the protein kinase C family in spatial memory of the mouse.