Neuropathological changes and cognitive deficits in rats transgenic for human mutant tau recapitulate human tauopathy.

ABSTRACT: The assembly of tau protein into abnormal filaments and brain cell degeneration are characteristic of a number of human neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia and parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17. Several murine models have been generated to better understand the mechanisms contributing to tau assembly and neurodegeneration. Taking advantage of the more elaborate central nervous system and higher cognitive abilities of the rat, we generated a model expressing the longest human tau isoform (2N4R) with the P301S mutation. This transgenic rat line, R962-hTau, exhibits the main features of human tauopathies, such as: age-dependent increase in inclusions comprised of aggregated-tau, neuronal loss, global neurodegeneration as reflected by brain

SUBMITTER: Malcolm JC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6597947 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature