The effect of intra-ventral hippocampus administration of TRPV1 agonist and antagonist on spatial learning and memory in male rats.

Background: The role of transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) in peripheral nervous system has been studied well but its role in the central nervous system remains to be studied in detail. The expression of TRPV1 receptors in hippocampus is suggesting that they may play an important role in higher cognitive functions such as learning and memory.

Methods: In the present study, the role of TRPV1 receptors in acquisition and retrieval of spatial memory of male Wistar rats was evaluated by intra-ventral hippocampus administration of TRPV1 selective agonist (OLDA) and antagonist (AMG9810) using Morris water maze.

Results: The results demonstrated that administration of either OLDA (0.001, 0.01 and 0.1 μg/rat) or AMG9810 (0.003, 0.03 and 0.3 μg/rat) did not influence memory acquisition or retrieval.

Conclusions: These data suggest that ventral-hippocampal TRPV1 receptors possibly are not involved in spatial learning and memory.