Involvement of basolateral amygdala astrocytes in contextual fear memory.

ARGIBAY LOURDES; RIVA GARGIULO M; RAMIRES MARTINA; VITTORELLI FRANCO; MORENO FRANCISCO; CALFA GD; BENDER, C.L.

Congreso; XXXVIII Congreso anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias; 2023

Little is known about the role of astrocytes from the basolateral amygdala complex (BLA-C) on the contextual fear conditioning (CFC), a relevant paradigm to understand fear related disorders. Previous experiments in our lab showed that administration of fluorocitrate (FLC, an astrocyte inhibitor) in the BLA-C before CFC, impeded the acquisition of fear memory. To gain insights into mechanisms, we tested if FLC-induced memory deficits could be reversed by the co-administration of putative gliotransmitters: glutamate and d-serine, known to be release by astrocyte and to be involved in learning induced plasticity. We also evaluated if FLC administration during the consolidation memory phase could disrupt the memory formation and explored if astrocyte plasticity is observed during this time window. Adult Wistar male rats were infused intra-BLA-C with FLC and a mixture of glutamate and d-serine before CFC. Memory was evaluated 2 days later analyzing percentage of time of defensive behaviors. Another group of animals were conditioned and administered intra-BLA-C 5 minutes after CFC, to target the consolidation phase. In another set of experiments, rats were sacrificed 1 hour after CFC for immunofluorescence staining of GFAP to evaluate morphological and/or expression changes in astrocytes during the consolidation phase. All together, the data suggest that BLA-C astrocytes play a role in early phases of the consolidation window.