1. Extracellular matrix controls neuronal features that mediate the persistence of fear
- Author
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Giorgia Guarneri, Martine Ammassari-Teule, Roberto Pagano, Silvia Middei, and Annabella Pignataro
- Subjects
Male ,0301 basic medicine ,Receptors, N-Acetylglucosamine ,Silver Staining ,Histology ,Dendritic spine ,Conditioning, Classical ,Chondroitin ABC Lyase ,Traumatic memories ,c-Fos ,Extinction, Psychological ,Extracellular matrix ,Mice ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,medicine ,Animals ,Premovement neuronal activity ,Anterior cingulate cortex ,Neurons ,biology ,Basolateral Nuclear Complex ,General Neuroscience ,Fear ,Extinction (psychology) ,Extracellular Matrix ,Mice, Inbred C57BL ,030104 developmental biology ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Gene Expression Regulation ,Mental Recall ,biology.protein ,Plant Lectins ,Anatomy ,Psychology ,Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos ,Neuroscience ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Basolateral amygdala - Abstract
Degradation of the chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans of the extracellular matrix (ECM) by injections of the bacterial enzyme chondroitinase ABC (ChABC) in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) does not impair fear memory formation but accelerates its extinction and disrupts its reactivation. These observations suggest that the treatment might selectively interfere with the post-extinction features of neurons that mediate the reinstatement of fear. Here, we report that ChABC mice show regular fear memory and memory-driven c-fos activation and dendritic spine formation in the BLA. These mice then rapidly extinguish their fear response and exhibit a post-extinction concurrent reduction in c-fos activation and large dendritic spines that extends to the anterior cingulate cortex 7 days later. At this remote time point, fear renewal and fear retrieval are impaired. These findings show that a non-cellular component of the brain tissue controls post-extinction levels of neuronal activity and spine enlargement in the regions sequentially remodelled during the formation of recent and remote fear memory. By preventing BLA and aCC neurons to retain neuronal features that serve to reactivate an extinguished fear memory, ECM digestion might offer a therapeutic strategy for durable attenuation of traumatic memories.
- Published
- 2017