Neuronal Ras activation inhibits adult hippocampal progenitor cell division and impairs spatial short-term memory

A large number of endogenous and exogenous factors have been identified to upregulate and downregulate proliferation, differentiation and/or survival of newborn cells in the adult hippocampus. For studying neuronal mechanisms mediating the impact of those factors, we used a transgenic synRas mouse model expressing constitutively activated Valin12-Harvey Ras selectively in differentiated neurons. BrdU injections showed significantly reduced proliferation of new cells within the adult hippocampus of transgenic animals compared with their wild-type siblings. In contrast, the relative survival of newborn cells was increased in synRas mice, although this effect did not fully compensate for diminished proliferation. Inhibition of progenitor cell proliferation and enhancement of cellular survival were more pronounced in males compared with females. Double labelling and doublecortin immunostaining verified that specifically newborn neurons were decreased in synRas mice. Reduced cell generation was observed already 2 h after BrdU pulse injections, identifying an early precursor cell population as target of the inhibitory transgene effect. Differences in proliferation remained stable after 24 h and were specific for the subgranular zone of the dentate gyrus, as subventricular cell generation was not affected supporting a non-cell autonomous effect on neural hippocampal progenitors. Transgene expression only starts with synaptic differentiation and therefore reduced proliferation must represent an indirect secondary consequence of synRas activity in differentiated neurons. This was associated with impaired spatial short-term memory capacities as observed in a radial maze paradigm. Our data suggest that constantly high Ras activity in differentiated neurons downregulates hippocampal precursor cell generation in the neuronal lineage, but is modulated by sex-dependent factors.