Behavioral characterization of the Tg2576 transgenic model of Alzheimer's disease through 19 months

• Published in: Physiology & behavior 2002-04, Vol.75 (5), p.627-642
• Main Authors: King, David L, Arendash, Gary W
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Activity levels. Psychomotricity; Age Factors; Alzheimer Disease - genetics; Alzheimer Disease - mortality; Alzheimer Disease - physiopathology; Alzheimer's disease; Amyloid beta-Peptides - genetics; Animals; Avoidance Learning - physiology; Behavior, Animal - physiology; Biological and medical sciences; Biotechnology; Cognition. Intelligence; Cognitive performance; Disease Models, Animal; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Genetic engineering; Genetic technics; Genetics, Behavioral; Genotype; Humans; Male; Maze Learning - physiology; Methods. Procedures. Technologies; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Mice, Transgenic; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychomotor activities; Psychomotor Performance - physiology; Reasoning. Problem solving; Sensorimotor function; Survival Analysis; Survival Rate; Transgenic animals; Transgenic animals and transgenic plants; Transgenic mice; β-Amyloid
• ISSN: 0031-9384; 1873-507X
• DOI: 10.1016/S0031-9384(02)00639-X

Behavioral characterization of Alzheimer's disease (AD) transgenic models over multiple time points during aging has been largely inadequate, usually being limited to one or two cognitive-based tasks. In this context, the present study utilized a comprehensive 6-week behavioral battery to characterize sensorimotor and cognitive performance of Tg2576 AD transgenic (Tg +) mice and nontransgenic (Tg −) controls aged 3, 9, 14, and 19 months. Compared collectively to Tg − mice over all four time points, Tg + mice were impaired in Y-maze spontaneous alternation, visible platform recognition, and several sensorimotor tasks; Tg + mice also showed an overall increase in activity measures. The deficits in visible platform became evident by 9 months of age, while those in sensorimotor tasks became clearly manifest by 14 months. Although the behavioral impairments exhibited by Tg + mice were usually progressive through 19 months, Tg − animals also showed similar progressive decline in the same behavioral measures; thus, no task revealed a progressive behavioral decline exclusive to Tg + mice. Moreover, although the 6-week behavioral battery included six cognitively based tasks (i.e., Y-maze, visible platform, Morris water maze, circular platform, passive avoidance, and active avoidance), behavioral analysis through 19 months revealed Tg + mice to be impaired in only the Y-maze and visible platform tasks. Consequently, Tg2576 mice do not exhibit widespread, profound cognitive impairment, even into old age. This may reflect their predominant C57BL/6 background and an apparent inability of the mutant transgene to profoundly alter performance therein.