Central blockade of IL-1 does not impair taste-LPS associative learning

After saccharin intake is associated with the consequences of peripheral lipopolysaccharide (LPS) administration, rats develop a strong conditioned avoidance behavior against this gustatory stimulus. To investigate the role of central interleukin-1 (IL-1) as a key signal during taste-LPS engram formation, rats were chronically infused with IL-1 receptor antagonist into the lateral ventricle of the brain before, during and after a single association trial. The results indicate that a stable taste-LPS engram can be formed even under the chronic blockade of central IL-1 signaling during engram formation and consolidation. More importantly, our data show that animals which did not experience a fever response during association phase (due to the LPS encounter) were unable to elicit hyperthermia as part of the conditioned response. These data indicate that pairing a relevant taste stimulus with an immune challenge, such as LPS, might result in the formation of multiple engrams, specifically codifying independent information.