Chronic reduction in dietary tryptophan leads to a selective impairment of contextual fear memory in mice.

Full Abstract

The depletion of systemic tryptophan is an important tool to study the effects of reduced 5-HT on cognition. Indeed, previous reports indicated that acute depletion of TRP leads to a memory impairment in human subjects and rodents. From the view of nutrition, it is important to investigate the effects of chronic limitation of L-tryptophan (TRP) on learning and memory formation. In this study, we examined the effects of chronic consumption of a low TRP diet on memory formation in mice. Specifically, we assessed the ability to form contextual fear, cued fear, conditioned taste aversion, and spatial memories in mice fed a TRP-limited diet for at least 1 month. TRP-limited mice showed impaired formation of contextual fear memory that is hippocampus-dependent. In contrast, these mice showed normal hippocampus-dependent spatial memory in the Morris water maze test, as well as in cued fear and conditioned taste aversion memories, which are amygdala-dependent memory processes. Thus, dietary TRP restriction appears to result in selective impairments in hippocampus-dependent contextual fear memory formation in mice.

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Author information

Author/s: Uchida, Shusaku (S); Umeeda, Hisahiro (H); Kitamoto, Aya (A); Masushige, Shoichi (S); Kida, Satoshi (S);

Affiliation: Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Faculty of Agriculture, Tokyo University of Agriculture, 1-1-1 Sakuragaoka, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 156-8502, Japan.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Brain research (Brain Res), published in Netherlands. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-May; vol 1149 (issue ) : pp 149-56

Dates: Created 2007/05/04; Completed 2007/07/16;

PMID: 17382305, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Animals
Brain - physiopathology
Conditioning, Classical
Diet
Fear - physiology
Learning - physiology

Learning - physiology
Male
Memory - physiology
Mice
Mice, Inbred C57BL
Tryptophan - deficiency

Associated Chemicals: Tryptophan (73-22-3)

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