Selectively enhanced contextual fear conditioning in mice lacking the transcriptional regulator CCAAT/enhancer binding protein δ

CCAAT/enhancer binding protein delta (C/EBP delta) is a transcriptional regulator implicated in the hepatic acute phase response and in adipogenic and myeloid cell differentiation. We found that C/EBP delta is widely expressed in the peripheral and central nervous systems, including neurons of the hippocampal formation, indicating a role in neural functions. To examine the role of C/EBP delta in vivo, we generated mice with a targeted deletion of the C/EBP delta gene. This mutation does not interfere with normal embryonic and postnatal development. Performance in a battery of behavioral tests indicates that basic neurological functions are normal. Furthermore, performance in a Morris water maze task suggests that C/EBP delta mutant mice have normal spatial learning. However, in the contextual and auditory-cue-conditioned fear task, C/EBP delta null mice displayed significantly more conditioned freezing to the test context than did wild-type controls, but equivalent conditioning to the auditory cue, These data demonstrate a selectively enhanced contextual fear response in mice carrying a targeted genomic mutation and implicate C/EBP delta in the regulation of a specific type of learning and memory.