Daily patterns of clock and cognition‐related factors are modified in the hippocampus of vitamin A‐deficient rats

Mar 22, 2012Hippocampus

Daily rhythms of internal clock and thinking-related factors change in the memory area of rats lacking vitamin A

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Abstract

Significant daily variations in gene expression were observed in the rat hippocampus.

Daily patterns of clock genes BMAL1, PER1, RORα, and REVERB were identified in the hippocampus.
Vitamin A deficiency led to a reduction in RXRβ mRNA levels and affected the amplitude of gene expression rhythms.
The daily peaks of BMAL1 and RORα mRNA levels were phase-shifted in vitamin A-deficient rats.
Altered expression patterns of cognition-related genes RC3 and BDNF were linked to vitamin A status.
Nutritional factors, particularly vitamin A and retinoids, may modulate daily gene expression patterns associated with cognitive performance.

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The circadian expression of clock and clock-controlled cognition-related genes in the hippocampus would be essential to achieve an optimal daily cognitive performance. There is some evidence that retinoid nuclear receptors (RARs and RXRs) can regulate circadian gene expression in different tissues. In this study, Holtzman male rats from control and vitamin A-deficient groups were sacrificed throughout a 24-h period and hippocampus samples were isolated every 4 or 5 h. RARα and RXRβ expression level was quantified and daily expression patterns of clock BMAL1, PER1, RORα, and REVERB genes, RORα and REVERB proteins, as well as temporal expression of cognition-related RC3 and BDNF genes were determined in the hippocampus of the two groups of rats. Our results show significant daily variations of BMAL1, PER1, RORα, and REVERB genes, RORα and REVERB proteins and, consequently, daily oscillating expression of RC3 and BDNF genes in the rat hippocampus. Vitamin A deficiency reduced RXRβ mRNA level as well as the amplitude of PER1, REVERB gene, and REVERB protein rhythms, and phase-shifted the daily peaks of BMAL1 and RORα mRNA, RORα protein, and RC3 and BDNF mRNA levels. Thus, nutritional factors, such as vitamin A and its derivatives the retinoids, might modulate daily patterns of BDNF and RC3 expression in the hippocampus, and they could be essential to maintain an optimal daily performance at molecular level in this learning-and-memory-related brain area.

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Daily patterns of clock and cognition‐related factors are modified in the hippocampus of vitamin A‐deficient rats

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