The salt-inducible kinase, SIK, is induced by depolarization in brain

Membrane depolarization of neurons is thought to lead to changes in gene expression that modulate neuronal plasticity. We used representational difference analysis to identify a group of cDNAs that are induced by membrane depolarization or by forskolin, but not by neurotrophins or growth factors, in PC12 pheochromocytoma cells. One of these genes, SIK (salt-inducible kinase), is a member of the sucrose-nonfermenting 1 protein kinase/AMP-activated protein kinase protein kinase family that was also recently identified from the adrenal gland of rats treated with high-salt diets. SIK mRNA is induced up to eightfold in specific regions of the hippocampus and cortex in rats, following systemic kainic acid administration and seizure induction.