%0 Journal Article %T The effect of cdk-5 overexpression on tau phosphorylation and spatial memory of rat %A Xiaomei Liao %A Yingchun Zhang %A Yipeng Wang %A Jianzhi Wang %J Science China Life Sciences %@ 1869-1889 %D 2004 %I %R 10.1007/BF03182770 %X In Alzheimer¡¯s disease (AD), hyperphosphorylation of tau may be the underlying mechanism for the cytoskeletal abnormalities and neuronal death. It was reported that cyclin-dependent kinase5 (cdk-5) could phosphorylate tau at most AD-related epitopesin vitro. In this study, we investigated the effect of cdk-5 overexpression on tau phosphorylation and spatial memory in rat. We demonstrated that 24 h after transfection into rat hippocampus, cdk-5 was overexpressed and induced a reduced staining with antibody tau-1 and an enhanced staining with antibodies 12e8 and PHF-1, suggesting hyperphosphorylation of tau at Ser199/202, Ser262/356 and Ser396/404 sites. Additionally, the cdk-5 transfected rats showed long latency to find the hidden platform in Morris water maze compared to the control rat. 48 h after transfection, the level of cdk-5 was decreased significantly, and the latency of rats to find the hidden platform was prolonged. It implies thatin vivo overexpression of cdk-5 leads to impairment of spatial memory in rat and tau hyperphosphorylation may be the underlying mechanism. %K cyclin-dependent kinase5 (cdk-5) %K tau spatial memory %K Alzheimer¡¯s disease %U http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF03182770