Abstract:

Introduction: REM sleep deprivation is associated with learning and memory impairment, and acute nicotine treatment has been shown to attenuate this effect. It involves changes in the DREAM protein expression, which regulates the transcription of others proteins that are important for the learning and memory processes. This study investigates the changes of pCREB and BDNF protein in REM sleep deprived rat’s hippocampus upon nicotine treatment.

Methods: Different male Sprague Dawley rats were subjected to normal conditions, REM sleep deprivation and control wide platform conditions for 72 hours. During this procedure, saline or nicotine (1 mg/kg) was given subcutaneously twice a day. The rats were sacrificed, and their brains were harvested for the immunohistochemistry and western blot analysis.

Results: REM sleep deprivation rat (R group) showed a significant decrease of hippocampus pCREB and BDNF protein expression in CA1, CA2, CA3 and DG regions, and the mean relative level of pCREB and BDNF protein, compared to other experimental groups. Treatment with acute nicotine significantly prevented these effects and increased expression of pCREB and BDNF protein in all the hippocampus regions and upregulated the mean relative level of pCREB and BDNF protein.

Conclusion: This study suggests that changes in pCREB and BDNF protein expression in CA1, CA2, CA3 and DG regions of a rat’s hippocampus and mean relative level of pCREB and BDNF protein involved in the mechanism of acute nicotine treatment-prevented REM sleep deprivation induced learning and memory impairment in rats.

Keywords:

BDNF protein; pCREB protein; hippocampus; learning and memory; nicotine; REM sleep deprivation