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    Home > Active Ingredient News > Study of Nervous System > Explore the molecular mechanism of memory function formation

    Explore the molecular mechanism of memory function formation

    • Last Update: 2021-03-22
    • Source: Internet
    • Author: User
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    Some people never forget, and some people forget.
    Why is there such a big individual difference? Even the same person may have a superior memory when he is young, and memory decline when he is old.
    Why? When it comes to memory, we have to mention the hippocampus.
    It is an important brain structure that processes short-term memory information and forms long-term memory.
    It also plays an important role in spatial information processing and directional navigation.

    However, we have been poorly understood about the cellular and molecular mechanisms of human hippocampus development.

     The hippocampus (the red part in the figure) is an important brain structure involved in spatial navigation, memory and learning.

    Source: SCIEPRO/GETTY In January 2020, Wang Xiaoqun, a researcher at the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Wu Qian, a professor at Beijing Normal University, and others published a paper in the journal Nature [1], revealing the dynamic development process of the human hippocampus.
    A map of hippocampal developmental cells was drawn to clarify the molecular mechanism of memory function loop formation.

    The hippocampus (Hippocampus) is an important part of the limbic system of the human brain.
    It is located between the thalamus and the medial temporal lobe of the brain.
    It is named after the sea animal that resembles the hippocampus.

    According to related studies, the hippocampus is not only inseparable from memory function and spatial information processing, but also related to the pathogenesis of many diseases.

    Such diseases include epilepsy, depression, autism, Alzheimer's disease and so on.

    Take Alzheimer's disease as an example.
    This is a neurodegenerative disease.
    Its symptoms include gradual decline in memory, learning difficulties, language disorders, disorientation, etc.
    , which are directly related to impaired hippocampal function.

    In view of this, psychologists, neuroscientists, and clinicians have always been committed to cracking the mystery of the hippocampus; it is self-evident to study the development of the hippocampus of the human brain.

    The joint research team of Wang Xiaoqun and Wu Qian used high-throughput single-cell transcriptome technology to sequence single cells in the human embryonic hippocampus.

    Specifically, they used single-cell RNA sequencing and chromatin transposase accessibility sequencing analysis (ATAC-Seq) to try to reveal the cell types, cell lines, molecular characteristics, and transcriptional regulation of the hippocampus during development.

    ATAC-Seq is a high-throughput sequencing method that uses transposase to study the accessibility of chromatin throughout the genome, and is considered an innovative epigenetic research technology.

    Using this method, the researchers analyzed 30,416 cells in the hippocampus of the human brain during 16-27 weeks of gestation, and divided them into 47 cell subtypes, and found that the developing human brain hippocampus single cells have significant molecular diversity.
    .

    At the same time, the comparative analysis of the human hippocampus and prefrontal cortex transcriptome shows that there are differences in neuron development between the two; oligodendrocytes may be involved in the maturation of hippocampal neurons in the early stages of development, but they have not been in the prefrontal cortex.
    appear.

    The researchers also revealed the dynamic development of hippocampal neurons.

    They found that excitatory neurons are divided into three stages of development: 16-18 weeks of gestation is mainly neurogenesis; 20-22 weeks of gestation is axon formation, and neurons begin to mature; 25-27 weeks of gestation are functional development and initial formation A functional neural network.

    For PROX1, a transcription factor that is important for hippocampal granulosa cell production and dentate gyrus formation, the researchers discovered its potential binding sites with LEF1 and TCF4.

    Given that LEF1 and TCF4 are two transcription factors involved in the WNT signaling pathway, this indicates that the WNT signaling pathway is essential for the formation of granular cells in the dentate gyrus.

    The research team also compared the key differences between human and rodent hippocampus.

    Transcriptomics association analysis shows that at 16-20 weeks of gestation in humans, the molecular characteristics of the hippocampus are similar to those of mice at 0-5 days after birth.

    This indicates that the human embryonic hippocampus developed earlier than mice, but lasted longer, and there were differences in gene expression between the two species.

    The researchers then screened out a series of genes unique to the human hippocampus, and confirmed the relationship between the WNT signaling pathway and the development of the hippocampal dentate gyrus.

    This study used single-cell technology to identify the diversity of cell types and some key genes during the development of the human brain hippocampus, and systematically revealed gene expression trajectories, transcriptional regulatory networks and signal transduction pathways.

    These research results paved the way for further exploration of the development and function of the human hippocampus in the future, and also laid the foundation for the research on related diseases and the development of treatment options.

    References: 1.
    Zhong, S.
    , Ding, W.
    , Sun, L.
    et al.
    Decoding the development of the human hippocampus.
    Nature 577, 531–536 (2020).
    https://doi.
    org/10.
    1038/ s41586-019-1917-5© natureNature | doi:10.
    1038/s41586-019-1917-5 Chinese content is for reference only, and all content is subject to the original English version.
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