post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), under water trauma (UWT) model rats, long-term depression, alpha calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (αCaMKII) Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients have severe fear extinction disorder, but the underlying molecular and neurobiological mechanisms are still unknown. The hippocampus has sub-regional specific functions, however, their involvement in PTSD is unclear. In this study, we used under water trauma (UWT) model rats which exhibit

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... ltiple core PTSD symptoms, including anxiety, depression, and impaired fear extinction. In the dorsal or ventral hippocampus, we found that long-term depression at Schaffer collateral and medial perforant pathway were impaired in UWT model rats. Moreover, although the expression levels of ionotropic glutamate receptors including NR2A, NR2B, GluA1, and GluA2 were normal, the activity of alpha calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (αCaMKII) significantly increased in both the dorsal and ventral hippocampus of UWT model rats. These findings reveal similar abnormalities in synaptic plasticity and αCaMKII activity in different hippocampal sub-regions of UWT rats. Our results shed light on the regionspecific role of the hippocampus in PTSD and provide a theoretical basis for the development of specific treatments for PTSD.