CATALOGING ALTERED GENE-EXPRESSION DURING RAT HIPPOCAMPAL LONG-TERM POTENTIATION BY MEANS OF DIFFERENTIAL DISPLAY

We have employed mRNA differential display (DD) to generate a catalog of cDNAs whose expression in the hippocampus was regulated during long -term potentiation (LTP) in dentate gyrus of anesthetized rats. DD wit h 459 combinations of primer pairs revealed that 80 out of approximate ly 70000 bands displayed showed a reproducible change in their express ion level, These cDNAs were categorized into seven groups according to changes in their temporal expression pattern. Some of these cDNAs wer e induced rapidly, but transiently, after the LTP induction, some indu ced rapidly and persistently, some induced slowly, and some down-regul ated following LTP. This suggests that a complex molecular hierarchy u nderlies the maintenance of hippocampal LTP. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.