Sexual Dimorphism in Balance and Coordination in p75NTR exonIII Knock-Out Mice

• Published in: Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience 2022, Vol.16, p.842552
• Main Authors: Abbasian, Mahdi, Langlois, Annick, Gibon, Julien
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1662-5153; 1662-5153
• DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2022.842552

The p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75NTR) is implicated in various biological functions during development and adulthood. Several animal models have been developed to identify the roles of p75NTR and . P75NTR knock-out mice are widely used to study the neurotrophin receptor and its signaling pathways. Similar to other models of p75NTR knock-out (p75NTR KO) or conditional knock-out (p75NTR ) mice, p75NTR knock-out mice present severe abnormalities in walking, gait, balance and strength. The present study identifies a sexual dimorphism in the p75NTR knock-out strain regarding balance and coordination. Using Kondziela's inverted grid test, we observed that p75NTR knock-out males performed poorly at the task, whereas p75NTR knock-out females did not exhibit any defects. We also observed that female p75NTR knock-out mice performed significantly better than male p75NTR knock-out mice at the beam balance test. There were no differences in strength, skin innervation, or the number of ulcers on the toes between p75NTR knock-out males and females. The literature regarding the role of p75NTR in behavior is controversial; our results suggest that studies investigating the role of p75NTR using p75NTR knock-out mice should systematically report data from males and females.