Jonathan S Thacker, Liam T Ralph, Laura Koek, Aram Abbasian, Luis B Bettio, Ashleigh S Smith, John Georgiou, Brian R Christie, Graham L Collingridge
{"title":"Synergistic actions of corticosterone and BDNF on rat hippocampal LTP.","authors":"Jonathan S Thacker, Liam T Ralph, Laura Koek, Aram Abbasian, Luis B Bettio, Ashleigh S Smith, John Georgiou, Brian R Christie, Graham L Collingridge","doi":"10.1186/s13041-025-01213-x","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Exercise evokes many physiological changes, including the release of hormones and growth factors that are known to improve cognition via unknown mechanisms. Here, we have compared the ability of two physiologically relevant factors, corticosterone (CORT) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), to affect long-term potentiation (LTP) in the hippocampus. Using a compressed theta-burst stimulation (cTBS) protocol, we found that CORT has no effect on LTP, BDNF enhances LTP and combined CORT + BDNF treatment results in significantly greater LTP. We also find that CORT + BDNF, but not either compound alone, results in phosphorylation of protein kinase A (PKA). These findings show that BDNF and CORT act synergistically to enhance LTP at these synapses, potentially via a PKA-dependent mechanism. Such a synergistic action could underlie the positive cognitive effects of exercise.</p>","PeriodicalId":18851,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Brain","volume":"18 1","pages":"42"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3000,"publicationDate":"2025-05-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12070750/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Molecular Brain","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s13041-025-01213-x","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"NEUROSCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Exercise evokes many physiological changes, including the release of hormones and growth factors that are known to improve cognition via unknown mechanisms. Here, we have compared the ability of two physiologically relevant factors, corticosterone (CORT) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), to affect long-term potentiation (LTP) in the hippocampus. Using a compressed theta-burst stimulation (cTBS) protocol, we found that CORT has no effect on LTP, BDNF enhances LTP and combined CORT + BDNF treatment results in significantly greater LTP. We also find that CORT + BDNF, but not either compound alone, results in phosphorylation of protein kinase A (PKA). These findings show that BDNF and CORT act synergistically to enhance LTP at these synapses, potentially via a PKA-dependent mechanism. Such a synergistic action could underlie the positive cognitive effects of exercise.
期刊介绍:
Molecular Brain is an open access, peer-reviewed journal that considers manuscripts on all aspects of studies on the nervous system at the molecular, cellular, and systems level providing a forum for scientists to communicate their findings.
Molecular brain research is a rapidly expanding research field in which integrative approaches at the genetic, molecular, cellular and synaptic levels yield key information about the physiological and pathological brain. These studies involve the use of a wide range of modern techniques in molecular biology, genomics, proteomics, imaging and electrophysiology.