It is part of the Mi-2/NuRD complex that has been implicated in chromatin remodeling and transcriptional repression associated with histone deacetylation.

This encoded protein is also part of corepressor complexes, which is an integral component of transcriptional silencing.

[7] A decrease of RbAp48 in the dentate gyrus (DG) of the hippocampus in the brain is suspected to be a main cause of memory loss in normal aging.

Using lentiviral gene transfer to increase the expression of RbAp48 in the brain reverses memory deficits in older mice.

It has previously been shown that dopamine D1/D5 agonists such as 6-Br-APB and SKF-38,393 that are positively coupled to adenylyl cyclase and the cAMP phosphodieserase inhibitor rolipram reduce memory defects in aged mice.