Assessment of motor function, sensory motor gating and recognition memory in a novel BACHD transgenic rat model for huntington disease.

ABSTRACT:

Rationale

Huntington disease (HD) is frequently first diagnosed by the appearance of motor symptoms; the diagnosis is subsequently confirmed by the presence of expanded CAG repeats (> 35) in the HUNTINGTIN (HTT) gene. A BACHD rat model for HD carrying the human full length mutated HTT with 97 CAG-CAA repeats has been established recently. Behavioral phenotyping of BACHD rats will help to determine the validity of this model and its potential use in preclinical drug discovery studies.

Objectives

The present study seeks to characterize the progressive emergence of motor, sensorimotor and cognitive deficits in BACHD rats.

Materials and methods

Wild type and transgenic rats were tested from 1 till 12 months of age. Motor tests were selected to measure spontaneous locomoto

SUBMITTER: Abada YS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3708912 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature