Impairment of synaptic development in the hippocampus of diabetic Goto‐Kakizaki rats

Abstract Insulin receptor signaling has been shown to regulate essential aspects of CNS function such as synaptic plasticity and neuronal survival. To elucidate its roles during CNS development in vivo , we examined the synaptic and cognitive development of the spontaneously diabetic Goto‐Kakizaki (GK) rats in the present study. GK rats are non‐obese models of type 2 diabetes established by selective inbreeding of Wistar rats based on impaired glucose tolerance. Though they start exhibiting only moderate hyperglycemia without changes in plasma insulin levels from 3 weeks postnatally, behavioral alterations in the open‐field as well as significant impairments in memory retention compared with Wistar rats were observed at 10 weeks and were worsened at 20 weeks. Alterations in insulin receptor signaling and signs of insulin resistance were detected in the GK rat hippocampus at 3 weeks, as early as in other insulin‐responsive peripheral tissues. Significant reduction of an excitatory postsynaptic scaffold protein, PSD95, was found at 5 w and later in the hippocampus of GK rats due to the absence of a two‐fold developmental increase of this protein observed in Wistar control rats between 3 and 20 w. In the GK rat hippocampus, NR2A which is a NMDA receptor subunit selectively anchored to PSD95 was also reduced. In contrast, both NR2 B and its anchoring protein, SAP102, showed similar developmental profiles in Wistar and GK rats with expression peaks at 2 and 3 w. The results suggest that early alterations in insulin receptor signaling in the GK rat hippocampus may affect cognitive performance by suppressing synaptic maturation.