Event Abstract

MPTP-induced Animal Model of Parkinson's Disease Dementia: There are Species Differences

  • 1 Chung Shan Medical University, School of Psychology, Taiwan

Animals treated with 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) are used as models of Parkinson's disease. This study analyzed changes of motor, anxiety, recognition, and learning in MPTP-lesioned Wistar rats and C57BL/6 mice, which was intended to establish a useful model of Parkinson's disease dementia. MPTP was bilaterally infused into the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) of male Wistar rats. Starting one day after the MPTP lesion, the rats were subjected to a battery of behavioral tests for measuring motor function in the rotarod, anxiety level in the elevated plus-maze (EPM), learning and working memory in the T-maze, and recognition in the object recognition task. Male C57BL/6 mice receiving intraperitoneal injection of MPTP were subjected to a battery of behavioral tests for measuring motor function in the open field, anxiety level in the EPM, learning function in the active avoidance task (AAT), and recognition in the object recognition task. Both rats and mice showed motor deficits in the rotarod and open field test, respectively, one day after MPTP lesioning. However, such impairments in the rats were reversed to control levels 7 days after the MPTP lesion, which were assessed by measuring percentage of movement time on the rotarod. Similarly, analyzing total distance and movement time in the open field, motor impairments of the mice were also reversed to control levels 11 days after the MPTP lesion. Decreased exploration time to novel objects in the object recognition test was observed in both rats and mice treated by MPTP. MPTP lesion suppressed open arm time and open arm entry in the EPM test in rats, but not in mice. In addition, MPTP-lesioned rats showed lowered correct responses in the T-maze test. However, no effect of MPTP lesion was found on learning ability in the AAT in mice. In summary, MPTP lesion in rats caused deficits in motor, anxiety, recognition, and learning ability. MPTP-treated mice showed impairments in movement and recognition, but not in anxiety level and learning ability. These results provide evidence for taking the species differences into account when animal models for studying symptoms of early phase of Parkinson's disease dementia. Keywords: Parkinson's disease dementia ; MPTP ; Species differences ; Motor function ; Anxiety level ; Learning ; Recognition ; Animal model

Conference: Neuroinformatics 2010 , Kobe, Japan, 30 Aug - 1 Sep, 2010.

Presentation Type: Poster Presentation

Topic: Clinical neuroscience

Citation: Chun Ho S and Jui Ho Y (2010). MPTP-induced Animal Model of Parkinson's Disease Dementia: There are Species Differences. Front. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: Neuroinformatics 2010 . doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2010.13.00094

Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters.

The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated.

Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed.

For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions.

Received: 14 Jun 2010; Published Online: 14 Jun 2010.

* Correspondence: Shih Chun Ho, Chung Shan Medical University, School of Psychology, Taichung, Taiwan, gorgeous-1023@hotmail.com