NERVE GROWTH-FACTOR WITH INSULAR CORTICAL GRAFTS INDUCES RECOVERY OF LEARNING AND REESTABLISHES GRAFT CHOLINE-ACETYLTRANSFERASE ACTIVITY

Rats showing disrupted taste aversion due to insular cortex (IC)-lesio ns received either IC-grafts with NGF, grafts without NGF, or NGF alon e. An additional group served as lesioned controls. Only those animals that received IC-grafts with NGF recovered the ability to learn the c onditioned taste aversion task, at 15 days post-graft. Choline acetylt ransferase (ChAT) activity in the IC-grafts with, but not without NGF, was similar to the IC activity of unoperated controls. In contrast, g lutamate decarboxylase activity was similar in all the groups. These f indings suggest that IC-grafts associated with NGF induce recovery of learning abilities in IC-lesioned rats, which correlates with reestabl ishment of ChAT activity in the grafts at 15 days post-implantation.