Fear memory recall induces an anxiogenic-like behavior in ethanol withdrawn rats: reversion by memory reconsolidation interference

Congreso; XXX Reunión anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias; 2015

Withdrawal from chronic ethanol consumption promotes the formation of a robust andresistant fear memory. Here, we examine the anxiety-like effect of fear memory recall inethanol-dependent (ETOH) rats. Male Wistar rats were made dependent via an ethanolcontaining liquid diet (6% v/v) for 14 days. Contextual fear conditioning (FC) was performed on day 3 of withdrawal. Seven days after, rats were re-exposed to fear training context and tested in the elevated plus maze (EPM) 30min later. A significant decrease in the percentage of time spent on the open arms (%TA) and in the number of open arm entries (OAE) was induced by fear memory recall only in ETOH rats. Next, we evaluated whether interfering memory reconsolidation could affect recall-induced anxiety-like behavior in the EPM. We have demonstrated that D-cycloserine (DCS)/Propranolol (PROP) administration in combination with memory retrieval impair of fear memory reconsolidation in ETOH rats.Therefore, seven days after FC, rats received DCS (5mg/kg, ip) 30 min before a 5-min context re-exposure and immediately after, were injected with PROP (10mg/Kg, ip) or SAL. The following day, memory retention was evaluated and then, rats were tested in the EPM. ETOH animals treated with DCS/PROP displayed levels of %TA and number of OAE similar to CON animals. Our results suggest that fear memory retrieval promotes an anxiety-like behaviour in ETOH rats and its consequence is prevented by the interference of reconsolidation process.