The effect of glial glutamine synthetase inhibition on recognition and temporal memories in the rat

- MSO, a glutamine synthetase inhibitor, induced temporal memory deficit.
- However, it did not alter spatial recognition memory.
- This suggests that glia also modulates some aspects of mnemonic processes.

The glutamate neurotransmitter is intrinsically involved in learning and memory. Glial glutamine synthetase enzyme synthesizes glutamine, which helps maintain the optimal neuronal glutamate level. However, the role of glutamine synthetase in learning and memory remains unclear. Using associative trace learning task, we investigated the effects of methionine sulfoximine (MSO) (glutamine synthetase inhibitor) on recognition and temporal memories. MSO and vehicle were injected (i.p.) three hours before training in separate groups of male Wistar rats (n = 11). Animals were trained to obtain fruit juice after following a set of sequential events. Initially, house-light was presented for 15 s followed by 5 s trace interval. Thereafter, juice was given for 20 s followed by 20 s inter-presentation interval. A total of 75 presentations were made over five sessions during the training and testing periods. The average number of head entries to obtain juice per session and during individual phases at different time intervals was accounted as an outcome measure of recognition and temporal memories. The total head entries in MSO and vehicle treated animals were comparable on training and testing days. However, it was 174.90% (p = 0.08), 270.61% (p < 0.05), 143.20% (p < 0.05) more on training day and 270.33% (p < 0.05), 157.94% (p < 0.05), 170.42% (p < 0.05) more on testing day, during the house-light, trace-interval and inter-presentation interval phases in MSO animals. Glutamine synthetase inhibition did not induce recognition memory deficit, while temporal memory was altered, suggesting that glutamine synthetase modulates some aspects of mnemonic processes.