Chronic Treatment of Fluoxetine Increases Expression of NCAM140 in the Rat Hippocampus

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: Most of the mechanisms reported for antidepressant drugs are the enhancement of neurite outgrowth and neuronal survival in the rat hippocampus. Neural cell adhesion molecule 140(NCAM140) has been implicated as having a role in cell-cell adhesion, neurite outgrowth, and synaptic plasticity. In this report, we have performed to elucidate a correlation among chronic antidepressant treatments, NCAM140 expression, and activation of phosphorylated cyclicAMP responsive element binding protein(pCREB) which is a downstream molecule of NCAM140-mediated intracellular signaling pathway in the rat hippocampus. METHODS: Fluoxetine(10mg/kg) was injected acutely(daily injection for 5days) or chronically(daily injection for 14days) in adult rats. RNA and protein were extracted from the rat hippocampus, respectively. Real-time RTPCR was performed to analyze the expression pattern of NCAM140 gene and western blot analyses for the activation of the phosphorylation ratio of CREB. RESULTS: Chronic fluoxetine treatments increased NCAM140 expression 1.3 times higher than control in rat hippocampus. pCREB immunoreactivity in the rat hippocampus with chronic fluoxetine treatment was increased 4.0 times higher than that of control. CONCLUSION: Chronic fluoxetine treatment increased NCAM140 expression and pCREB activity in the rat hippo-campus. Our data suggest that NCAM140 and pCREB may play a role in the clinical efficacy of antidepressants promoting the neurite outgrowth and neuronal survival.