Space-like ⁵⁶Fe irradiation manifests mild, early sex-specific behavioral and neuropathological changes in wildtype and Alzheimer's-like transgenic mice.

ABSTRACT: Space travel will expose people to high-energy, heavy particle radiation, and the cognitive deficits induced by this exposure are not well understood. To investigate the short-term effects of space radiation, we irradiated 4-month-old Alzheimer's disease (AD)-like transgenic (Tg) mice and wildtype (WT) littermates with a single, whole-body dose of 10 or 50 cGy ⁵⁶Fe ions (1 GeV/u) at Brookhaven National Laboratory. At ~1.5 months post irradiation, behavioural testing showed sex-, genotype-, and dose-dependent changes in locomotor activity, contextual fear conditioning, grip strength, and motor learning, mainly in Tg but not WT mice. There was little change in general health, depression, or anxiety. Two months post irradiation, microPET imaging of the stable binding of a transloca

SUBMITTER: Liu B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6702228 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature