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Metabotropic glutamate receptor antagonists but not NMDA antagonists affect conditioned taste aversion acquisition in the parabrachial nucleus of rats

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Abstract

The effect of glutamate receptor antagonists on conditioned taste aversion (CTA) was studied in rats. The association of the short-term memory of a gustatory conditioned stimulus (CS) with visceral malaise (unconditioned stimulus, US) in the CTA paradigm takes place in the parabrachial nuclei (PBN) of the brainstem. The first direct evidence of participation of glutamatergic neurotransmission in the PBN during CTA demonstrated that the extracellular level of glutamate rises during saccharin drinking (Bielavska et al. in Brain Res 887:413–417, 2000). Our results show an effect of microdialysis administration of selective GluR antagonists into the PBN on the formation of CTA engram. We used four glutamate receptor (GluR) antagonists of different types (D-AP5, MK-801 as antagonists of ionotropic GluR and L-AP3, MSPG as antagonists of metabotropic GluR). The disruptive effect of MK-801 on CTA formation in the PBN is concentration-dependent, with the greatest inhibition under the higher concentrations eliciting significant disruption. The application of D-AP5 (0.1, 1, 5 mM) did not elicit a statistically significant blockade of CTA acquisition. This indicates that the association of the US–CS in the PBN is not dependent on NMDA receptors. On the contrary, application of L-AP3 (0.1, 1, 5 mM) blocked the CS–US association.

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Acknowledgements

We thank J. Bures and A. Stuchlik for their advice and critical comments. We are also grateful to C. Dockery and P. Shafafi for language check. This study was supported by grant MEYS CR, project 1M0002375201, and grant AVOZ5011922 from Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Physiology, Academy of Sciences, Videnska 1083, 142 20, Prague 4, Czech Republic

    Karel Vales & Edita Bielavska

  2. 3rd Medical Faculty, Institute of Anatomy, Prague, Czech Republic

    Petr Zach

  3. Social and Health Faculty, South-Bohemian University, Prague, Czech Republic

    Petr Zach

  4. KUMS, Kathmandu University, Kathmandu, Nepal

    Petr Zach

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  1. Karel Vales
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Correspondence to Karel Vales.

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Vales, K., Zach, P. & Bielavska, E. Metabotropic glutamate receptor antagonists but not NMDA antagonists affect conditioned taste aversion acquisition in the parabrachial nucleus of rats. Exp Brain Res 169, 50–57 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-005-0127-6

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