nervous system
N |
• mutant PCs display normal short-term synaptic plasticity to paired stimuli relative to wild-type controls
• at 4-6 weeks of age, homozygotes show normal excitatory synaptic transmission from parallel fibers (PFs) or climbing fibers (CFs) to Purkinje cells (PCs)
• homozygotes display normal cerebellar cytoarchitecture relative to wild-type controls, except for the absence of GFAP filaments
• mutant PCs show no differences in dendritic Ca2+ spikes evoked by CF inputs or by depolarizing current injection relative to wild-type controls
• no persistent multiple innervation of PCs by CFs is observed in the adult cerebellum
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• at 30 min after conjunctive stimulation of PFs and CFs by five pulse trains delivered every 2 s for 10 min, the relative changes in the rising slope of PF EPSPs are significantly different between wild-type and mutant PCs (-20.0% +/- 5.6% vs +22.7% +/- 8.3%, respectively)
• however, no significant differences between wild-type and mutant PCs are noted in the rising slope of PF EPSPs at 30 min after CF stimulation alone
• long term potentaion (LTP) of field EPSPs in the CA1 region of the hippocampus is normal after theta-burst stimulation
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• homozygotes exhibit cerebellar long term depression (LTD) deficiency: unlike in wild-type controls, simultaneous stimulation of PFs and CFs fails to evoke LTD and results in a slight potentiation at the mutant PF-PC synapses
• in contrast, homozygotes display normal LTP in the hippocampal CA1 region
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behavior/neurological
N |
• homozygotes exhibit normal motor coordination in the rotating rod, rope climbing and runway tasks
• homozygotes learn the rotating rod task as efficiently as wild-type controls
• no ataxia, tremors or differences in horizontal and vertical movements are observed
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• homozygotes display impaired eyeblink conditioning when a conditioned stimulus (tone 1 kHz, 352 ms, 80 db) is paired with a periorbital shock (100 ms, 100 Hz pulses) as an unconditioned stimuls for 8 days
• unlike wild-type controls which display a gradual increase in the percent of conditioned responses (CR%) until the 7th session (~70%), homozygotes show only a moderate increase of CR% for the first 3 sessions and reach a plateau (~30-40%) for subsequent sessions
• although CRs in the first session appear unaffected, CRs in the 7th and 8th sessions are significantly lower in mutant mice relative to wild-type controls
• however, periorbital shock sensitivity is normal and both CR onset and peak latencies remain intact, suggesting normal CR kinetics
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