Item Details

title

Effects of neuronal p27 suppression on learning and memory

author

Patel, Jinal

abstract

p27 is a master regulator of the cell cycle. It inhibits CDK/Cyclin complexes which serve as a gate keeper for the different phases of the cell cycle. p27 level increases in hippocampal tissue of neurodegenerative disease like Alzheimer’s disease and Down syndrome patients. Studies show that p27 levels change with age in different tissue. Previous studies in cell culture have shown contradictory effects of CDK/Cyclin complexes on phosphorylation of eukaryotic elongation factor 2 (eEF2). eEF2 is involved in protein synthesis mechanism, which is established as cellular mechanism of long-term potentiation. We wanted to look at the effects of neuronal p27 suppression on learning and memory. In this study we knocked out p27 heterozygously and homozygously in forebrain specific excitatory neurons of mice. We performed battery of behavioral assays to look at the effects of p27 suppression at 2 different age, young (3-6 months) and middle (10-12 months). We found that p27 suppression has no effect on learning and memory of young mice. However, we see impaired learning and memory in middle aged homozygous knockout mice. Additionally, we saw no changes in eEF2 phosphorylation. These results suggests that a complete suppression of p27 leads to learning and memory impairments at older age.

subject

age dependent

CDK1/Cyclin B

CDK2/Cyclin A

eEF2

learning and memory

p27

contributor

Ma, Tao (advisor)

Sun, Peiqing (committee member)

date

2024-05-23T08:35:51Z (accessioned)

2024 (issued)

degree

Neuroscience (discipline)

embargo

2026-05-22 (terms)

2026-05-22 (liftdate)

identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/109395 (uri)

language

en (iso)

publisher

Wake Forest University

type

Thesis