Gene expression profiling in brain regions of a rat model displaying schizophrenia-related features

• Published in: Behavioural brain research 2010-03, Vol.207 (2), p.476-479
• Main Authors: Van Schijndel, Jessica E., Van Zweeden, Martine, Van Loo, Karen M.J., Martens, Gerard J.M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Animals; Apomorphine; Apomorphine-(un)susceptible rats; Behavioral psychophysiology; Biological and medical sciences; Brain - metabolism; Complex phenotype; Disease Models, Animal; Dopamine; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gene Expression Profiling; Kv Channel-Interacting Proteins - genetics; Kv Channel-Interacting Proteins - metabolism; Male; Medical sciences; Membrane Proteins - genetics; Membrane Proteins - metabolism; Microarray; Microarray Analysis; Phenotype; Potassium channel-interacting protein 1; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Psychoses; Rat brain; Rats; Rats, Wistar; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; RNA, Messenger - metabolism; Schizophrenia; Schizophrenia - chemically induced; Schizophrenia - genetics; Schizophrenia - metabolism; Species Specificity
• ISSN: 0166-4328; 1872-7549
• DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2009.10.042

Animal models allow insights into complex neurodevelopmental disorders. Apomorphine-susceptible rats (so-called APO-SUS rats) provide a model that displays a complex phenotype with schizophrenia-related features and together with its phenotypic counterpart (APO-UNSUS rats) has been independently generated twice (original and replicate rat lines). To understand the molecular basis underlying this phenotype, we here performed mRNA expression profiling in various APO-SUS and APO-UNSUS rat brain regions. The expression of only the previously reported Aph-1b and the newly discovered KCnIP1 (a member of the potassium channel-interacting protein family that is known to modulate neuronal channel activity) was significantly different in the APO-SUS and APO-UNSUS rats from both the original and replicate rat lines. Thus, KCnIP1 may constitute a novel candidate gene playing a role in the complex phenotype of the APO-SUS/APO-UNSUS rat model and further studies on this gene are warranted.