Hypothyroxinemia Effects in the Brain CytoarchiteHYPOTHYROXINEMIA EFFECTS IN THE BRAIN CYTOARCHITECTURE: STUDIES IN
TRANSTHYRETIN-NULL MICE.
-
1
University of Minho, Life and Health Sciences Research Institute, Portugal
Transthyretin (TTR) is the major rodent carrier of thyroid hormones and retinol. Both ligands are essential for the proper development of the central nervous system. In the absence of TTR, TTR-null adult mice showed altered behavior: decreased susceptibility in depression-like activity tests (forced swim test) and decreased- like anxiety performance in the open field test; moreover in the absence of TTR, 5-month-old mice display spatial reference memory impairment when compared to age-matched wild-type mice. One possibility for such altered behavior could be impairment in the development of the central nervous system. Even though adult TTR-null mice do not present signs of hypothyroidism, they are hypothyroxinemic (50% decrease in the total T4 levels). It has been described that when euthyroid hypothyroxinemia is chemically induced at certain periods throughout pregnancy, there is impaired neuronal migration in the hippocampus and sensomotory cortex. Moreover maternal hypothyroxinemia was shown to impair spatial learning and synaptic nature and function in the offspring. Because TTR-null mice are “naturally” euthyroid hypothyroxinemic, we analysed their hippocampus neuronal organization by evaluating the dendritic arborization and spine numbers and type in the hippocampus CA1 region at both 5-month and 18-month of age. Preliminary data indicate that 5-month- old TTR-null display a decrease in the length of the basal dendrites in neurons from the CA1 region when compared to wild-type mice. These results might correlate with the previously reported impairment in spatial learning memory in TTR-null mice.
Conference:
11th Meeting of the Portuguese Society for Neuroscience, Braga, Portugal, 4 Jun - 6 Jun, 2009.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Neurodegenerative Disorders
Citation:
Martins
L,
Jose-Cerqueira
J,
Miguel Pego
J,
Sousa
N,
Almeida-Palha
J and
Sousa
JC
(2009). Hypothyroxinemia Effects in the Brain CytoarchiteHYPOTHYROXINEMIA EFFECTS IN THE BRAIN CYTOARCHITECTURE: STUDIES IN
TRANSTHYRETIN-NULL MICE..
Front. Neurosci.
Conference Abstract:
11th Meeting of the Portuguese Society for Neuroscience.
doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.01.2009.11.084
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Received:
10 Aug 2009;
Published Online:
10 Aug 2009.
*
Correspondence:
Luis Martins, University of Minho, Life and Health Sciences Research Institute, Braga, Portugal, luismartins@ecsaude.uminho.pt