mortality/aging
• mice are born in normal Mendelian ratios but show a 40% mortality during the first few days after birth, followed by a very gradual decline through 4 weeks of age
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growth/size/body
• at P21, average body weight is about 80% of that in wild-type controls; however, this improves to 93% of controls by P100
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nervous system
• adult mice show a 17% decrease in the number of nuclei labeling with CTIP2, a marker of medium spiny neurons, in the dorsal striatum; however, the density of medium spiny neurons is not changed
• the number of primary dendrites, dendritic branch points or nodes, dendritic tips, and total length are decreased in striatal medium spiny neurons; however, mean dendritic length is not changed
• Sholl analysis revealed reduced cumulative dendritic length and decreased Sholl intersections
• spine density is reduced by ~15%
• no major proliferation deficit or changes in apoptosis are observed
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• a 15% decrease in striatal volume is noted at P21 and P80
• a non-significant 7% reduction in striatal volume is noted at P0
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• a 7% decrease of cortical volume is noted at P80
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behavior/neurological
• mice show a significant increase in locomotor activity in response to a sub-threshold amphetamine challenge (2 mg/kg) that does not alter
motility in wild-type controls
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• mice exhibit decreased thigmotaxis in the open-field test
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• mice spend a greater fraction of low mobility bouts grooming but do not show alterations in the power of these grooming events
• mice show a shift toward greater repetitions of phase 4 grooming relative to wild-type controls
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• in the accelerating rotarod test, mice exhibit impaired rotarod performance with significantly lower terminal speeds and shorter times to fail than wild-type controls
• however, force plate-mediated gait analysis showed no differences in average stride length, stride rate or velocity
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• mice exhibit modest hyperactivity in both IR-beam open-field tests and force plate actometry analysis, with increases in total distance traveled and a decrease in the number of low mobility bouts relative to wild-type controls
• in the open field test, mice show more beam breaks, more rearing events, and decreased thigmotaxis relative to wild-type controls
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• in the open field test, mice show significantly more rearing events than wild-type controls
• force plate analysis revealed a significant increase in hind limb jumps relative to wild-type controls
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• force plate analysis revealed a significant absolute directional bias in turning behaviors, measured over the course of a 60-minute session
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