LTM in CA1 Aged versus young rats

The aim of this study was to investigate whether the differences in memory decline associated with aging are a result of differences in gene expression. We first categorized age-unimpaired and age-impaired rats based on their performance in the Morris Water Maze and then isolated messenger RNA from the CA1 hippocampal region of each animal to interrogate Affymetrix microarrays. Microarray analysis (p<0.005) identified a set of 50 genes that were transcribed differently in age-unimpaired animals that had successfully learned a spatial task compared to aged learning-impaired animals and a variety of groups designed to control for all non-learning aspects of exposure to the water maze paradigm. Keywords: behavior comparison, age comparison a total of 79 samples were analyzed including aged and young rats. One chip was interrogated per animal. Analysis of aged rat data includes 44 samples. Controls include cage controls, yoked controls (no platform), visible platform controls.