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Normal sensitivity to excitotoxicity in a transgenic Huntington's disease rat

Winkler, C ; Gil, Joana LU ; Araujo, Ines LU ; Riess, O ; Skripuletz, T ; Horsten, S and Petersén, Åsa LU (2006) In Brain Research Bulletin 69(3). p.306-310
Abstract
Huntington's disease (HD) is a hereditary neurodegenerative disorder caused by a CAG repeat expansion in the HD gene. Excitotoxic cell damage by excessive stimulation of glutamate receptors has been hypothesized to contribute to the pathogenesis of HD. Transgenic mouse models of HD have shown variable sensitivity to excitotoxicity. The models differ in the genetic background, the type and length of the promoter driving the transgene expression, the CAG repeat length and/or the HD gene construct length. Furthermore, one has to differentiate whether transgenic or knock-in models have been used. All these factors may be involved in determining the responsiveness to an excitotoxic insult. Here, we explored the responsiveness to excitotoxic... (More)
Huntington's disease (HD) is a hereditary neurodegenerative disorder caused by a CAG repeat expansion in the HD gene. Excitotoxic cell damage by excessive stimulation of glutamate receptors has been hypothesized to contribute to the pathogenesis of HD. Transgenic mouse models of HD have shown variable sensitivity to excitotoxicity. The models differ in the genetic background, the type and length of the promoter driving the transgene expression, the CAG repeat length and/or the HD gene construct length. Furthermore, one has to differentiate whether transgenic or knock-in models have been used. All these factors may be involved in determining the responsiveness to an excitotoxic insult. Here, we explored the responsiveness to excitotoxic damage using a transgenic HD rat model carrying 22% of the rat HD gene which is driven by the rat HD promoter and which harbors 51 CAG repeats. 3 and 18 months old transgenic HD rats and their wild-type littermates received unilateral intrastriatal injections of the glutamate analogue quinolinic acid. Lesion size was assessed 7 days later using the degenerative stain Fluoro-Jade and by immunohistochemistry for the neuronal protein NeuN. No difference in susceptibility to excitotoxicity was found between the groups. Our study supports mouse data showing maintained susceptibility to excitotoxicity with the expression of around 25% of the full HD gene. Differences in sensitivity to excitotoxicity between genetic animal models of HD may be dependent on the length of the expressed HD gene although additional factors are also likely to be important. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. (Less)
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author
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Fluoro-Jade, HD animal models, quinolinic acid
in
Brain Research Bulletin
volume
69
issue
3
pages
306 - 310
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • wos:000236660900009
  • pmid:16564426
  • scopus:33645054561
ISSN
0361-9230
DOI
10.1016/j.brainresbull.2006.01.003
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
The information about affiliations in this record was updated in December 2015. The record was previously connected to the following departments: Neuronal Survival (013212041)
id
1bdc5c07-1a9e-4d4d-9c35-aa4ae9f31f1f (old id 414593)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 12:02:17
date last changed
2022-01-26 21:56:12
@article{1bdc5c07-1a9e-4d4d-9c35-aa4ae9f31f1f,
  abstract     = {{Huntington's disease (HD) is a hereditary neurodegenerative disorder caused by a CAG repeat expansion in the HD gene. Excitotoxic cell damage by excessive stimulation of glutamate receptors has been hypothesized to contribute to the pathogenesis of HD. Transgenic mouse models of HD have shown variable sensitivity to excitotoxicity. The models differ in the genetic background, the type and length of the promoter driving the transgene expression, the CAG repeat length and/or the HD gene construct length. Furthermore, one has to differentiate whether transgenic or knock-in models have been used. All these factors may be involved in determining the responsiveness to an excitotoxic insult. Here, we explored the responsiveness to excitotoxic damage using a transgenic HD rat model carrying 22% of the rat HD gene which is driven by the rat HD promoter and which harbors 51 CAG repeats. 3 and 18 months old transgenic HD rats and their wild-type littermates received unilateral intrastriatal injections of the glutamate analogue quinolinic acid. Lesion size was assessed 7 days later using the degenerative stain Fluoro-Jade and by immunohistochemistry for the neuronal protein NeuN. No difference in susceptibility to excitotoxicity was found between the groups. Our study supports mouse data showing maintained susceptibility to excitotoxicity with the expression of around 25% of the full HD gene. Differences in sensitivity to excitotoxicity between genetic animal models of HD may be dependent on the length of the expressed HD gene although additional factors are also likely to be important. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.}},
  author       = {{Winkler, C and Gil, Joana and Araujo, Ines and Riess, O and Skripuletz, T and Horsten, S and Petersén, Åsa}},
  issn         = {{0361-9230}},
  keywords     = {{Fluoro-Jade; HD animal models; quinolinic acid}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{3}},
  pages        = {{306--310}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Brain Research Bulletin}},
  title        = {{Normal sensitivity to excitotoxicity in a transgenic Huntington's disease rat}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.brainresbull.2006.01.003}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.brainresbull.2006.01.003}},
  volume       = {{69}},
  year         = {{2006}},
}