Cloning of cytidine triphosphate: phosphocholine cytidylyltransferase mRNAupregulated by a neuropeptide arginine-vasopressin((4-8)) in rat hippocampus

Neuropeptide arginine-vasopressin((4-8)) (AVP(4-8)) is a metabolite of argi nine-vasopressin which has been shown to have potent memory-enhancing activ ity, facilitate neurite elongation and prolongate cell aging. Identificatio n of differentially expressed genes in hippocampus induced by AVP(4-8) is i mportant for understanding the molecular basis of AVP(4-8) function. Differ ential display PCR and 5'rapid amplification of cDNA Ends were used. One ne w full length cDNA encoding rat cytidine triphosphate: phosphocholine cytid ylyltransferase (CCT) beta was thus obtained. Northern blot analysis demon strated that it was upregulated by AVP(4-8) in mature rat hippocampus. The study of tissue distribution with reverse transcription PCR showed that the gene was abundant in brain. Since CCT catalyzes the formation of cytidine diphosphate choline, which was reported to have a beneficial therapeutic ef fect on Alzheimer's disease, so we speculated that AVP(4-8) may be a potent ial candidate for treating Alzheimer's disease by upregulating CCT mRNA lev el. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.