Research reportHippocampal BDNF treatment facilitates consolidation of spatial memory in spontaneous place recognition in rats

- Hippocampal BDNF reversed spontaneous place recognition deficit by anisomycin.
- Hippocampal BDNF made spatial memory sustainable that normal rats could not retain.
- BDNF is a possible product of protein required for spatial memory consolidation.

In order to investigate the role of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the consolidation of spatial memory, we examined the relationship between the increase of hippocampal BDNF and the establishment of long-term spatial memory in spontaneous place recognition test in rats. The test consisted of a sample phase, delay interval, and a test phase, and preferred exploration of the object in a novel place compared with that in a familiar place was assessed in the test phase. In experiment 1, dorsal hippocampal administration of anisomycin, a protein synthesis inhibitor, before the sample phase (20 min) abolished the preference for the novel place object in the test phase conducted 24 h later. This impairment was reversed by the dorsal hippocampal BDNF treatment immediately after the sample phase, although the BDNF treatment alone did not improve performance. In experiment 2, we used a shorter sample phase condition (5 min) in which control rats did not show any preference for the novel place object in the test phase after 24 h delay, and found that BDNF treatment immediately after the sample phase caused rats' significant preference for it. Results suggest an important role of hippocampal BDNF as a product of protein synthesis that is required for the consolidation of spatial memory.