The role of anti-inflammatory cytokines in memory processing in a healthy brain

The purpose of the work was to study the role of anti-inflammatory cytokines in memory processing in a healthy brain. Wistar rats were trained to perform a task with positive (food) reinforcement; and then the task performance was tested after intraventricular injection of IL-10 or TGF-β1. A microinjection into the brain of either of the two cytokines did not affect the performance of the task and did not have an anti-amnesic effect when the retrieval was deteriorated with scopolamine. In addition, endogenous levels of IL-10 and TGF-β1 were determine in the prefrontal cortex and in the hippocampus after one and two training sessions, consisting of 10 runs each. The level of IL-10 did not change after training both in the prefrontal cortex and in the hippocampus. Endogenous level of TGF-β1 increased in the neocortex after the first training session, the second session, and recovered to the normal level three days after training. In contrast, in the hippocampus, the level of TGF-β1 was decreased: maximally after the first training session in the right hippocampus and after the second training session in the left one. Given the role of the prefrontal cortex in memory processing, we assume that a specific increase of TGF-β1 in the prefrontal cortex may indicate involvement in memory trace consolidation.