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Cerium is widely used in many aspects of modern society, including agriculture, industry and medicine. It has been demonstrated to enter the ecological environment, is then transferred to humans through food chains, and causes toxic actions in several organs including the brain of animals. However, the neurotoxic molecular mechanisms are not clearly understood. In this study, mice were exposed to 0.5, 1, and 2 mg/kg BW cerium chloride (CeCl3) for 90 consecutive days, and their learning and memory ability as well as hippocampal gene expression profile were investigated. Our findings suggested that exposure to CeCl3 led to hippocampal lesions, apoptosis, oxidative stress and impairment of spatial recognition memory. Furthermore, microarray data showed marked alterations in the expression of 154 genes involved in learning and memory, immunity and inflammation, signal transduction, apoptosis and response to stress in the 2 mg/kg CeCl3 exposed hippocampi. Specifically, the significant up-regulation of Axud1, Cdc37, and Ube2v1 caused severe apoptosis, and great suppression of Adcy8, Fos, and Slc5a7 expression led to impairment of mouse cognitive ability. Therefore, Axud1, Cdc37, Ube2v1, Adcy8, Fos, and Slc5a7 may be potential biomarkers of hippocampal toxicity caused by CeCl3 exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]