Sex-related differences in somatic plasticity and possible role of ERK1/2: An in-vivo study of young-adult rats.

The present study investigates sex differences in hippocampal functions in the context of synaptic plasticity, which is the cellular basis of learning and memory, and differences in the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway that accompanies plasticity in young-adult rats. The long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) were induced by stimulating the perforant pathway (PP) and field potentials composed of the field excitatory post-synaptic potential (fEPSP) and population spike (PS) were recorded from the dentate gyrus (DG). Following the completion of the electrophysiological recordings, the hippocampi were removed bilaterally, and the protein and gene expression levels of the extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2), c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and P38-MAPK were determined by Western blot analysis and real-time PCR, respectively.