http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23411585
Abstract
Adult hippocampal
neurogenesis is important in mediating hippocampal-dependent learning
and memory. Exogenous ghrelin is known to stimulate progenitor cell
proliferation in the dentate gyrus of adult hippocampus. The aim of
this study was to investigate the role of endogenous ghrelin in
regulating the in vivo proliferation and differentiation of the newly
generating cells in the adult hippocampus using ghrelin knockout (GKO)
mice. Targeted deletion of ghrelin gene resulted in reduced numbers of
progenitor cells in the subgranular zone (SGZ) of the hippocampus, while
ghrelin treatment restored progenitor cell numbers to those of
wild-type controls. We also found that not only the number of
BrdU-positive cells but also the fraction of immature neurons and newly
generated neurons were decreased in the GKO mice, which were increased
by ghrelin replacement. Additionally, in the GKO mice, we observed
impairment of memory performance in Y-maze task and novel object
recognition test. However, these functional deficiencies were
attenuated by ghrelin administration. These results suggest that
ghrelin directly induces proliferation and differentiation of adult
neural progenitor cells in the SGZ. Our data suggest ghrelin may be a
plausible therapeutic potential to enhance learning and memory
processes.
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