IL-4R alpha deficiency influences hippocampal-BDNF signaling pathway to impair reference memory

Like pro-inflammatory cytokines, the role of anti-inflammatory cytokines in both learning and memory has been investigated, revealing beneficial effects for both interleukin-4 and interleukin-13 via the common interleukin-4 receptor alpha chain complex. In this study, using the Morris water maze spatial task for cognition, we compared interleukin-4 receptor alpha- deficient mice and their ligands interleukin-4/ interleukin-13 double deficient mice, on a Balb/c background. We demonstrate that while interleukin-4/ interleukin-13 double deficient mice are significantly impaired in both learning and reference memory, interleukin-4 receptor alpha-deficiency impairs only reference memory, compared to the wild-type control mice. In order to better understand how interleukin-4 receptor alpha- deficient mice are able to learn but not remember, we investigated the BDNF/TrkB- and the ARC-signaling pathways. We show that interleukin-4 receptor alpha-deficiency disrupts activation of BDNF/TrkB- and ARC-signaling pathways during reference memory, while the pathway for spatial learning is spared.