| Abstract No.: | A-C1095 |
| Country: | Canada |
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| Title: | A LONGITUDINAL EVALUATION OF SPECIES-TYPICAL BEHAVIOUR, LEARNING AND MEMORY IN A SINGLE TRANSGENIC MOUSE MODEL OF ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE BETWEEN 8 AND 16 MONTHS OF AGE |
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| Authors/Affiliations: | 1 Ashley Whittaker*; 1 Rhian Gunn; 1 Richard Brown;
1 Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada
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| Content: | Objectives: Transgenic mouse models are pivotal in the study of the genetic, neural, and behavioural deficits found in Alzheimer’s disease. The aim of this project was to complete a longitudinal study of a single transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease from 8 to 16 months of age in tests of species-typical behaviours, learning and memory in an attempt to assess the behavioural validity of this model.
Materials & Methods: We evaluated the behaviours of the B6.Cg-Tg(PDGFB-APPSwInd)20Lms/1J (JAX # 004661) single transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease strain (7 males and 8 females) and their wildtype littermate controls (5 males and 4 females) in tests of anxiety (marble burying), locomotor (open field), species-typical behaviour (nest building) and learning and memory (novel object recognition/ relocation, Morris water maze, conditioned odor preference) at 8, 12, and 16 months of age.
Results: There was no difference in the number of marbles buried in the marble-burying test at 8 or 12 months of age. At 8 months of age the wildtype mice were more active in the open field than the transgenic mice, whereas at 12 months of age the transgenic mice spent more time in the center of the open field. There was a trend for transgenic mice to build poorer nests than their wildtype controls. There was no significant difference in learning and memory in the novel object recognition/ relocation task, although the transgenic mice explores the objects longer than wildtype mice at 8 months of age. Transgenic mice had a longer latency than wildtype mice to find the platform in the Morris water maze at 8 months of age and spent less time in the correct quadrant during the probe trial, indicating poorer spatial memory. There was no difference in latency to the platform at 12 months of age, but transgenic mice still spent less time in the correct quadrant during the probe trial than wildtype mice. There was no strain difference in learning or remembering the odors in the conditioned odor preference test at 8 or 12 months of age.
Conclusion: It appears that the B6.Cg-Tg(PDGFB-APPSwInd)20Lms/1J mice have deficits in spatial memory, as demonstrates by poorer performance in the probe trial of the Morris water maze, but no deficits in olfactory memory, anxiety, locomotor, or species-typical behaviour at the ages tested thus far. Mice continue to be tested at 16 and 20 months of age.
Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease, mouse models, transgenic, species-typical, learning, memory
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