Chemogenetic activation of prefrontal astroglia enhances recognition memory performance in rat

Abstract

Prefrontal cortex (PFC) inputs to the hippocampus are supposed to be critical in memory processes. Astrocytes are involved in several brain functions, such as homeostasis, neurotransmission, synaptogenesis. However, their role in PFC-mediated modulation of memory has yet to be studied. The present study aims at uncovering the role of PFC astroglia in memory performance and synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus. Using chemogenetic and lesions approaches of infralimbic PFC (IL-PFC) astrocytes, we evaluated memory performance in the novel object recognition task (NOR) and dorsal hippocampus synaptic plasticity. We uncovered a surprising role of PFC astroglia in modulating object recognition memory. In opposition to the astroglia PFC lesion, we show that chemogenetic activation of IL-PFC astrocytes increased memory performance in the novel object recognition task and facilitated in vivo dorsal hippocampus synaptic metaplasticity. These results redefine the involvement of PFC in recognition mnemonic processing, uncovering an important role of PFC astroglia.

Keywords: Astroglia; DREADDs; Hippocampus; Infralimbic Prefrontal Cortex; Recognition memory.