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The Journal of Neuroscience, September 6, 2006, 26(36):9130-9134; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1628-06.2006

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Brief Communications
Contrasting Roles of Corticosteroid Receptors in Hippocampal Plasticity

Avi Avital,¹ Menahem Segal,¹ and Gal Richter-Levin²

¹Department of Neurobiology, The Weizmann Institute, 71600 Rehovot, Israel, and ²Department of Psychology and the Brain and Behavior Research Center, University of Haifa, 31905 Haifa, Israel

Correspondence should be addressed to Avi Avital, Department of Neurobiology, The Weizmann Institute, 76100 Rehovot, Israel. Email: Avi.Avital{at}weizmann.ac.il

Elevated levels of corticosteroid hormones, presumably occupying both mineralocorticoid receptors (MRs) and glucocorticoid receptors (GRs), have been reported to impair synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus as well as the acquisition of hippocampus-dependent memories. In contrast, recent evidence suggests that activation of MRs enhance cognitive functions. To clarify the roles of different steroid receptors in hippocampal plasticity, young adult rats were injected with the GR antagonist RU38486 (mifepristone) or the MR antagonist Spironolactone before the exposure to an acute swim stress. Hippocampal responses to perforant path stimulation were then recorded in anesthetized rats. Stress combined with RU38486 produced a striking facilitation of LTP. Spironolactone enabled only short-term potentiation that reversed to long-term depression (LTD) in the stressed animals. Finally, the blockade of both MRs and GRs led to impairment of long-term potentiation. These findings indicate that MRs and GRs assume opposite roles in regulation of synaptic plasticity after acute exposure to stressors.

Key words: mineralocorticoid receptor; glucocorticoid receptor; DG hippocampus; acute swim stress; neural plasticity; LTP

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Received April 16, 2006; revised July 7, 2006; accepted July 31, 2006.

Correspondence should be addressed to Avi Avital, Department of Neurobiology, The Weizmann Institute, 76100 Rehovot, Israel. Email: Avi.Avital{at}weizmann.ac.il

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