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Campbell H, Guo JD, Kuhn C. Applying the Research Domain Criteria to Rodent Studies of Sex Differences in Chronic Stress Susceptibility. Biol Psychiatry 2024:S0006-3223(24)01351-9. [PMID: 38821193 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2024.05.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/10/2023] [Revised: 04/27/2024] [Accepted: 05/17/2024] [Indexed: 06/02/2024]
Abstract
Women have a two-fold increased rate of stress-associated psychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety, but the mechanisms of this increased susceptibility remain incompletely understood. Female subjects were historically excluded from preclinical studies and clinical trials. Additionally, chronic stress paradigms used to study psychiatric pathology in animal models were developed for use in males. However, recent changes in NIH policy encourage inclusion of female subjects, and considerable work has been performed in recent years to understand biological sex differences that may underlie differences in susceptibility to chronic stress associated psychiatric conditions. We here review the utility as well as current challenges of using the framework of the NIH's research domain criteria as a transdiagnostic approach to study sex differences in rodent models of chronic stress including recent progress in the study of sex differences in the neurobehavioral domains of negative valence, positive valence, cognition, social processes, arousal, and social processes.
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Janowski AJ, Berardi G, Hayashi K, Plumb AN, Lesnak JB, Khataei T, Martin B, Benson CJ, Sluka KA. The influence of sex on activity in voluntary wheel running, forced treadmill running, and open field testing. RESEARCH SQUARE 2024:rs.3.rs-4365992. [PMID: 38798501 PMCID: PMC11118703 DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4365992/v1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/29/2024]
Abstract
Introduction Physical activity is commonly used for both measuring and treating dysfunction. While preclinical work has been historically biased towards males, the use of both male and female animals is gaining popularity after multiple NIH initiatives. With increasing inclusion of both sexes, it has become imperative to determine sex differences in common behavioral assays. The purpose of this study was to determine baseline sex differences in 3 activity assays: voluntary wheel running, forced treadmill running, and open field testing. Methods This was a secondary analysis of sex differences in healthy mice in 3 different assays: Separate mice were used for each assay. Specifically, 16 mice underwent 28 days of voluntary wheel running, 178 mice underwent forced treadmill running, and 88 mice underwent open field testing. Differences between sex across several activity parameters were examined for each assay. Results In voluntary wheel running, sex differences with larger effect sizes were observed in distance run, running time, and bout duration, with smaller effect size differences in speed, and no difference in total bouts. In forced treadmill running, differences were shown in time to exhaustion, but no difference in max speed attained. In open field, there were sex differences in active time but not in distance and speed in data aggregated over 30 minutes; however, distance and speed in male mice showed a downward trajectory over the final 20 minutes of testing, whereas females maintained the same trajectory. Conclusion These data suggest that male mice demonstrate comparable activity intensity as female mice but do not match female's duration of activity, especially for volitional tasks. Researchers utilizing these assays should account for sex differences as they could potentially mask true findings in an experiment. Plain English Summary Physical activity is a common measure to examine function in human subjects with and without disease. Animal models often use measures of physical activity to assess function, yet most of these measures have been done in males only, making interpretation and translation to females and humans difficult. Several measures have been used to measure activity in animals, including those examining voluntary running behavior, maximum capacity, and general activity levels; sex differences between these measures are unclear. We discovered sex differences throughout each of three activity tests. In voluntary running behavior there were large differences between sexes with females running a greater distance and spending more time running. There were small differences in the maximum capacity with females running for a longer period at high intensity. General activity levels showed small differences with females being less active than males. Thus, the greatest differences were found for voluntary running and small differences were found for maximum capacity and general activity levels; differences observed were dependent on the task. Researchers utilizing these assays should account for sex differences as they could potentially mask true findings in an experiment.
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Melgar-Locatelli S, Mañas-Padilla MC, Gavito AL, Rivera P, Rodríguez-Pérez C, Castilla-Ortega E, Castro-Zavala A. Sex-specific variations in spatial reference memory acquisition: Insights from a comprehensive behavioral test battery in C57BL/6JRj mice. Behav Brain Res 2024; 459:114806. [PMID: 38086456 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2023.114806] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2023] [Revised: 12/06/2023] [Accepted: 12/07/2023] [Indexed: 12/25/2023]
Abstract
Sex differences in declarative memory are described in humans, revealing a female or a male advantage depending on the task. Specifically, spatial memory (i.e., spatial navigation) is typically most efficient in men. This sexual dimorphism has been replicated in male rats but not clearly in mice. In this study, sex differences in spatial memory were assessed in thirty-six C57BL/6 J mice (Janvier Labs; i.e., C57BL/6JRj mice), a widely used mouse substrain. Both male and female mice (12 weeks-old) were subjected to standard behavioral paradigms: the elevated plus maze, the open field test, the novel object and place tests, the forced swimming test, and the water maze test for spatial navigation. Across assessment, no sex differences were found in measures of locomotor activity, emotional and behavioral responses, and object and place recognition memories. In the water maze, male mice were faster in learning the platform location in the reference memory training and used more spatial strategies during the first training days. However, both sexes reached a similar asymptotic performance and performed similarly in the probe trial for long-term memory consolidation. No sex differences were found in the cued training, platform inversion sessions, or spatial working memory sessions. Hippocampal expression of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor was similar in both sexes, either in basal conditions or after performing the behavioral training battery. Importantly, female mice were not more variable than males in any measure analyzed. This outcome encourages the investigation of sex differences in animal models and the usefulness of including female mice in behavioral research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sonia Melgar-Locatelli
- Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga y Plataforma en Nanomedicina-IBIMA Plataforma BIONAND, Spain; Departamento de Psicobiología y Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento, Universidad de Málaga, Spain
| | - M Carmen Mañas-Padilla
- Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga y Plataforma en Nanomedicina-IBIMA Plataforma BIONAND, Spain; Departamento de Psicobiología y Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento, Universidad de Málaga, Spain
| | - Ana L Gavito
- Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga y Plataforma en Nanomedicina-IBIMA Plataforma BIONAND, Spain; Unidad de Gestión Clínica de Salud Mental, Hospital Regional Universitario de Málaga, Spain
| | - Patricia Rivera
- Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga y Plataforma en Nanomedicina-IBIMA Plataforma BIONAND, Spain; Unidad de Gestión Clínica de Salud Mental, Hospital Regional Universitario de Málaga, Spain
| | - Celia Rodríguez-Pérez
- Departamento de Nutrición y Bromatología, Universidad de Granada, Campus Universitario de Cartuja, Spain; Instituto de Nutrición y Tecnología de los Alimentos 'José Mataix', Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain; Instituto de Investigación Biosanitaria de Granada (ibs.GRANADA), Granada, Spain
| | - Estela Castilla-Ortega
- Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga y Plataforma en Nanomedicina-IBIMA Plataforma BIONAND, Spain; Departamento de Psicobiología y Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento, Universidad de Málaga, Spain.
| | - Adriana Castro-Zavala
- Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga y Plataforma en Nanomedicina-IBIMA Plataforma BIONAND, Spain; Departamento de Psicobiología y Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento, Universidad de Málaga, Spain.
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Nigri M, Bramati G, Steiner AC, Wolfer DP. Appetitively motivated tasks in the IntelliCage reveal a higher motivational cost of spatial learning in male than female mice. Front Behav Neurosci 2024; 18:1270159. [PMID: 38487348 PMCID: PMC10938600 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2024.1270159] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2023] [Accepted: 02/09/2024] [Indexed: 03/17/2024] Open
Abstract
The IntelliCage (IC) permits the assessment of the behavior and learning abilities of mice in a social home cage context. To overcome water deprivation as an aversive driver of learning, we developed protocols in which spatial learning is motivated appetitively by the preference of mice for sweetened over plain water. While plain water is available at all times, only correct task responses give access to sweetened water rewards. Under these conditions, C57BL/6J mice successfully mastered a corner preference task with the reversal and also learned a more difficult time-place task with reversal. However, the rate of responding to sweetened water decreased strongly with increasing task difficulty, indicating that learning challenges and reduced success in obtaining rewards decreased the motivation of the animals to seek sweetened water. While C57BL/6J mice of both sexes showed similar initial taste preferences and learned similarly well in simple learning tasks, the rate of responding to sweetened water and performance dropped more rapidly in male than in female mice in response to increasing learning challenges. Taken together, our data indicate that male mice can have a disadvantage relative to females in mastering difficult, appetitively motivated learning tasks, likely due to sex differences in value-based decision-making.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martina Nigri
- Department of Health Sciences and Technology, Institute of Human Movement Sciences and Sport, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Institute of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Giulia Bramati
- Institute of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Adrian C. Steiner
- Institute of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - David P. Wolfer
- Department of Health Sciences and Technology, Institute of Human Movement Sciences and Sport, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Institute of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
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Kahnau P, Mieske P, Wilzopolski J, Kalliokoski O, Mandillo S, Hölter SM, Voikar V, Amfim A, Badurek S, Bartelik A, Caruso A, Čater M, Ey E, Golini E, Jaap A, Hrncic D, Kiryk A, Lang B, Loncarevic-Vasiljkovic N, Meziane H, Radzevičienė A, Rivalan M, Scattoni ML, Torquet N, Trifkovic J, Ulfhake B, Thöne-Reineke C, Diederich K, Lewejohann L, Hohlbaum K. A systematic review of the development and application of home cage monitoring in laboratory mice and rats. BMC Biol 2023; 21:256. [PMID: 37953247 PMCID: PMC10642068 DOI: 10.1186/s12915-023-01751-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2023] [Accepted: 10/30/2023] [Indexed: 11/14/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Traditionally, in biomedical animal research, laboratory rodents are individually examined in test apparatuses outside of their home cages at selected time points. However, the outcome of such tests can be influenced by various factors and valuable information may be missed when the animals are only monitored for short periods. These issues can be overcome by longitudinally monitoring mice and rats in their home cages. To shed light on the development of home cage monitoring (HCM) and the current state-of-the-art, a systematic review was carried out on 521 publications retrieved through PubMed and Web of Science. RESULTS Both the absolute (~ × 26) and relative (~ × 7) number of HCM-related publications increased from 1974 to 2020. There was a clear bias towards males and individually housed animals, but during the past decade (2011-2020), an increasing number of studies used both sexes and group housing. In most studies, animals were kept for short (up to 4 weeks) time periods in the HCM systems; intermediate time periods (4-12 weeks) increased in frequency in the years between 2011 and 2020. Before the 2000s, HCM techniques were predominantly applied for less than 12 h, while 24-h measurements have been more frequent since the 2000s. The systematic review demonstrated that manual monitoring is decreasing in relation to automatic techniques but still relevant. Until (and including) the 1990s, most techniques were applied manually but have been progressively replaced by automation since the 2000s. Independent of the year of publication, the main behavioral parameters measured were locomotor activity, feeding, and social behaviors; the main physiological parameters were heart rate and electrocardiography. External appearance-related parameters were rarely examined in the home cages. Due to technological progress and application of artificial intelligence, more refined and detailed behavioral parameters have been investigated in the home cage more recently. CONCLUSIONS Over the period covered in this study, techniques for HCM of mice and rats have improved considerably. This development is ongoing and further progress as well as validation of HCM systems will extend the applications to allow for continuous, longitudinal, non-invasive monitoring of an increasing range of parameters in group-housed small rodents in their home cages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pia Kahnau
- German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), German Centre for the Protection of Laboratory Animals (Bf3R), Berlin, Germany
| | - Paul Mieske
- German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), German Centre for the Protection of Laboratory Animals (Bf3R), Berlin, Germany
- Institute of Animal Welfare, Animal Behavior and Laboratory Animal Science, Department of Veterinary Medicine, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Science of Intelligence, Research Cluster of Excellence, Marchstr. 23, 10587, Berlin, Germany
| | - Jenny Wilzopolski
- German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), German Centre for the Protection of Laboratory Animals (Bf3R), Berlin, Germany
| | - Otto Kalliokoski
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Silvia Mandillo
- Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, National Research Council CNR, Rome, Italy
| | - Sabine M Hölter
- Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Centre for Environmental Health, Munich, Germany
| | - Vootele Voikar
- Neuroscience Center, Helsinki Institute of Life Science (HiLIFE), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Adriana Amfim
- Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Spiru Haret University, Bucharest, Romania
| | - Sylvia Badurek
- Preclinical Phenotyping Facility, Vienna Biocenter Core Facilities (VBCF), member of the Vienna Biocenter (VBC), Vienna, Austria
| | - Aleksandra Bartelik
- International Clinical Research Center, St. Anne's University Hospital Brno, Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Angela Caruso
- Istituto Superiore Di Sanità, Research Coordination and Support Service, Rome, Italy
| | - Maša Čater
- Department of Animal Science, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Elodie Ey
- Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, Inserm, Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire UMR 7104- UMR-S 1258, Illkirch, 67400, France
| | - Elisabetta Golini
- Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, National Research Council CNR, Rome, Italy
| | - Anne Jaap
- Institute of Animal Welfare, Animal Behavior and Laboratory Animal Science, Department of Veterinary Medicine, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Science of Intelligence, Research Cluster of Excellence, Marchstr. 23, 10587, Berlin, Germany
| | - Dragan Hrncic
- Institute of Medical Physiology "Richard Burian", Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
| | - Anna Kiryk
- Laboratory of Preclinical Testing of Higher Standard, Neurobiology Center, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Science, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Benjamin Lang
- Institute of Animal Welfare, Animal Behavior and Laboratory Animal Science, Department of Veterinary Medicine, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Science of Intelligence, Research Cluster of Excellence, Marchstr. 23, 10587, Berlin, Germany
| | - Natasa Loncarevic-Vasiljkovic
- iNOVA4Health, NOVA Medical School, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, NMS, FCM, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Hamid Meziane
- Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, INSERM, Institut Clinique de La Souris (ICS), CELPHEDIA, PHENOMIN, 1 Rue Laurent Fries, Illkirch, 67404, France
| | - Aurelija Radzevičienė
- Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Medical Academy, Institute of Physiology and Pharmacology, Kaunas, Lithuania
| | - Marion Rivalan
- Research Institute for Experimental Medicine (FEM) and NeuroCure Cluster of Excellence, Animal Behaviour Phenotyping Facility, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Maria Luisa Scattoni
- Istituto Superiore Di Sanità, Research Coordination and Support Service, Rome, Italy
| | - Nicolas Torquet
- Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, Inserm, IGBMC, Institut Clinique de la Souris (ICS), CELPHEDIA, PHENOMIN, UMR 7104- UMR-S 1258, Illkirch, 67400, France
| | - Julijana Trifkovic
- Department of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Agriculture, University of East Sarajevo, East Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
| | - Brun Ulfhake
- Div. Clinical Physiology, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Christa Thöne-Reineke
- Institute of Animal Welfare, Animal Behavior and Laboratory Animal Science, Department of Veterinary Medicine, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Science of Intelligence, Research Cluster of Excellence, Marchstr. 23, 10587, Berlin, Germany
| | - Kai Diederich
- German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), German Centre for the Protection of Laboratory Animals (Bf3R), Berlin, Germany
| | - Lars Lewejohann
- German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), German Centre for the Protection of Laboratory Animals (Bf3R), Berlin, Germany
- Institute of Animal Welfare, Animal Behavior and Laboratory Animal Science, Department of Veterinary Medicine, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Science of Intelligence, Research Cluster of Excellence, Marchstr. 23, 10587, Berlin, Germany
| | - Katharina Hohlbaum
- German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), German Centre for the Protection of Laboratory Animals (Bf3R), Berlin, Germany.
- Science of Intelligence, Research Cluster of Excellence, Marchstr. 23, 10587, Berlin, Germany.
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Mariscal P, Bravo L, Llorca-Torralba M, Razquin J, Miguelez C, Suárez-Pereira I, Berrocoso E. Sexual differences in locus coeruleus neurons and related behavior in C57BL/6J mice. Biol Sex Differ 2023; 14:64. [PMID: 37770907 PMCID: PMC10540344 DOI: 10.1186/s13293-023-00550-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2023] [Accepted: 09/13/2023] [Indexed: 09/30/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND In addition to social and cultural factors, sex differences in the central nervous system have a critical influence on behavior, although the neurobiology underlying these differences remains unclear. Interestingly, the Locus Coeruleus (LC), a noradrenergic nucleus that exhibits sexual dimorphism, integrates signals that are related to diverse activities, including emotions, cognition and pain. Therefore, we set-out to evaluate sex differences in behaviors related to LC nucleus, and subsequently, to assess the sex differences in LC morphology and function. METHODS Female and male C57BL/6J mice were studied to explore the role of the LC in anxiety, depressive-like behavior, well-being, pain, and learning and memory. We also explored the number of noradrenergic LC cells, their somatodendritic volume, as well as the electrophysiological properties of LC neurons in each sex. RESULTS While both male and female mice displayed similar depressive-like behavior, female mice exhibited more anxiety-related behaviors. Interestingly, females outperformed males in memory tasks that involved distinguishing objects with small differences and they also showed greater thermal pain sensitivity. Immunohistological analysis revealed that females had fewer noradrenergic cells yet they showed a larger dendritic volume than males. Patch clamp electrophysiology studies demonstrated that LC neurons in female mice had a lower capacitance and that they were more excitable than male LC neurons, albeit with similar action potential properties. CONCLUSIONS Overall, this study provides new insights into the sex differences related to LC nucleus and associated behaviors, which may explain the heightened emotional arousal response observed in females.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patricia Mariscal
- Neuropsychopharmacology & Psychobiology Research Group, Department of Neuroscience, University of Cádiz, 11003, Cádiz, Spain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red en Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, 28029, Madrid, Spain
- Instituto de Investigación e Innovación Biomédica de Cádiz (INiBICA), Hospital Universitario Puerta del Mar, 11009, Cádiz, Spain
| | - Lidia Bravo
- Neuropsychopharmacology & Psychobiology Research Group, Department of Neuroscience, University of Cádiz, 11003, Cádiz, Spain.
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red en Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, 28029, Madrid, Spain.
- Instituto de Investigación e Innovación Biomédica de Cádiz (INiBICA), Hospital Universitario Puerta del Mar, 11009, Cádiz, Spain.
| | - Meritxell Llorca-Torralba
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red en Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, 28029, Madrid, Spain
- Instituto de Investigación e Innovación Biomédica de Cádiz (INiBICA), Hospital Universitario Puerta del Mar, 11009, Cádiz, Spain
- Neuropsychopharmacology & Psychobiology Research Group, Department of Cell Biology & Histology, University of Cádiz, 11003, Cádiz, Spain
| | - Jone Razquin
- Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine and Nursing, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), 48940, Leioa, Spain
- Neurodegenerative Diseases Group, Biocruces Bizkaia Health Research Institute, 48940, Barakaldo, Spain
| | - Cristina Miguelez
- Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine and Nursing, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), 48940, Leioa, Spain
- Neurodegenerative Diseases Group, Biocruces Bizkaia Health Research Institute, 48940, Barakaldo, Spain
| | - Irene Suárez-Pereira
- Neuropsychopharmacology & Psychobiology Research Group, Department of Neuroscience, University of Cádiz, 11003, Cádiz, Spain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red en Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, 28029, Madrid, Spain
- Instituto de Investigación e Innovación Biomédica de Cádiz (INiBICA), Hospital Universitario Puerta del Mar, 11009, Cádiz, Spain
| | - Esther Berrocoso
- Neuropsychopharmacology & Psychobiology Research Group, Department of Neuroscience, University of Cádiz, 11003, Cádiz, Spain.
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red en Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, 28029, Madrid, Spain.
- Instituto de Investigación e Innovación Biomédica de Cádiz (INiBICA), Hospital Universitario Puerta del Mar, 11009, Cádiz, Spain.
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Fleischer AW, Frick KM. New perspectives on sex differences in learning and memory. Trends Endocrinol Metab 2023; 34:526-538. [PMID: 37500421 PMCID: PMC10617789 DOI: 10.1016/j.tem.2023.06.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2023] [Revised: 06/12/2023] [Accepted: 06/14/2023] [Indexed: 07/29/2023]
Abstract
Females have historically been disregarded in memory research, including the thousands of studies examining roles for the hippocampus, medial prefrontal cortex, and amygdala in learning and memory. Even when included, females are often judged based on male-centric behavioral and neurobiological standards, generating and perpetuating scientific stereotypes that females exhibit worse memories compared with males in domains such as spatial navigation and fear. Recent research challenges these dogmas by identifying sex-specific strategies in common memory tasks. Here, we discuss rodent data illustrating sex differences in spatial and fear memory, as well as the neural mechanisms underlying memory formation. The influence of sex steroid hormones in both sexes is discussed, as is the importance to basic and translational neuroscience of studying sex differences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aaron W Fleischer
- Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53211, USA.
| | - Karyn M Frick
- Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53211, USA.
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8
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Janse van Rensburg HD, Terre'Blanche G, Van der Walt MM. On the basis of sex: male vs. female rat adenosine A 1/A 2A receptor affinity. BMC Res Notes 2023; 16:165. [PMID: 37563689 PMCID: PMC10413537 DOI: 10.1186/s13104-023-06346-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2022] [Accepted: 04/28/2023] [Indexed: 08/12/2023] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE To ensure reproducibility in biomedical research, the biological variable sex must be reported; yet a reason for using male (instead of female) rodents is seldom given. In our search for novel adenosine receptor ligands, our research group routinely determines a test compound's binding affinities at male Sprague-Dawley rat (r) adenosine A1 and A2A receptors via in vitro radioligand binding studies. This pilot study compared the binding affinities of four adenosine receptor ligands (frequently used as reference standards) at male and female adenosine rA1 and rA2A receptors. RESULTS The inhibition constant (Ki) values determined using female rats correspond well to the values obtained using male rats and no markable difference could be observed in affinity and selectivity of reference standards. For example, DPCPX the selective adenosine A1 receptor antagonist: male rA1Ki: 0.5 ± 0.1 nM versus female rA1Ki: 0.5 ± 0.03 nM; male rA2AKi: 149 ± 23 nM versus female rA2AKi: 135 ± 29 nM. From the limited data at hand, we conclude that even when using female rats for in vitro studies without regard for the oestrous cycle, the obtained data did not vary much from their male counterparts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Helena D Janse van Rensburg
- Centre of Excellence for Pharmaceutical Sciences, North-West University, Private Bag X6001, Potchefstroom, 2520, South Africa.
| | - Gisella Terre'Blanche
- Centre of Excellence for Pharmaceutical Sciences, North-West University, Private Bag X6001, Potchefstroom, 2520, South Africa
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, School of Pharmacy, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa
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Oyaga MR, Serra I, Kurup D, Koekkoek SKE, Badura A. Delay eyeblink conditioning performance and brain-wide c-Fos expression in male and female mice. Open Biol 2023; 13:220121. [PMID: 37161289 PMCID: PMC10170203 DOI: 10.1098/rsob.220121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Delay eyeblink conditioning has been extensively used to study associative learning and the cerebellar circuits underlying this task have been largely identified. However, there is a little knowledge on how factors such as strain, sex and innate behaviour influence performance during this type of learning. In this study, we used male and female mice of C57BL/6J (B6) and B6CBAF1 strains to investigate the effect of sex, strain and locomotion in delay eyeblink conditioning. We performed a short and a long delay eyeblink conditioning paradigm and used a c-Fos immunostaining approach to explore the involvement of different brain areas in this task. We found that both B6 and B6CBAF1 females reach higher learning scores compared to males in the initial stages of learning. This sex-dependent difference was no longer present as the learning progressed. Moreover, we found a strong positive correlation between learning scores and voluntary locomotion irrespective of the training duration. c-Fos immunostainings after the short paradigm showed positive correlations between c-Fos expression and learning scores in the cerebellar cortex and brainstem, as well as previously unreported areas. By contrast, after the long paradigm, c-Fos expression was only significantly elevated in the brainstem. Taken together, we show that differences in voluntary locomotion and activity across brain areas correlate with performance in delay eyeblink conditioning across strains and sexes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Roa Oyaga
- Department of Neuroscience, Erasmus MC, 3000 Rotterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Ines Serra
- Department of Neuroscience, Erasmus MC, 3000 Rotterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Devika Kurup
- Department of Neuroscience, Erasmus MC, 3000 Rotterdam, the Netherlands
| | | | - Aleksandra Badura
- Department of Neuroscience, Erasmus MC, 3000 Rotterdam, the Netherlands
- Netherlands Institute of Neuroscience, Royal Dutch Academy for Arts and Sciences, Amsterdam 1105 BA, the Netherlands
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10
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Schecter RW, Jensen CM, Gavornik JP. Sex and estrous cycle affect experience-dependent plasticity in mouse primary visual cortex. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0282349. [PMID: 37068089 PMCID: PMC10109517 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0282349] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2022] [Accepted: 02/13/2023] [Indexed: 04/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Sex hormones can affect cellular physiology and modulate synaptic plasticity, but it is not always clear whether or how sex-dependent differences identified in vitro express themselves as functional dimorphisms in the brain. Historically, most experimental neuroscience has been conducted using only male animals and the literature is largely mute about whether including female mice in will introduce variability due to inherent sex differences or endogenous estrous cycles. Though this is beginning to change following an NIH directive that sex should be included as a factor in vertebrate research, the lack of information raises practical issues around how to design experimental controls and apply existing knowledge to more heterogeneous populations. Various lines of research suggest that visual processing can be affected by sex and estrous cycle stage. For these reasons, we performed a series of in vivo electrophysiological experiments to characterize baseline visual function and experience-dependent plasticity in the primary visual cortex (V1) of male and female mice. We find that sex and estrous stage have no statistically significant effect on baseline acuity measurements, but that both sex and estrous stage have can modulate two mechanistically distinct forms of experience dependent cortical plasticity. We also demonstrate that resulting variability can be largely controlled with appropriate normalizations. These findings suggest that V1 plasticity can be used for mechanistic studies focusing on how sex hormones effect experience dependent plasticity in the mammalian cortex.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rachel W. Schecter
- Center for Systems Neuroscience, Biology Department, Boston University, Boston, MA, United States of America
| | - Cambria M. Jensen
- Center for Systems Neuroscience, Biology Department, Boston University, Boston, MA, United States of America
| | - Jeffrey P. Gavornik
- Center for Systems Neuroscience, Biology Department, Boston University, Boston, MA, United States of America
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11
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Boboc IKS, Rotaru-Zavaleanu AD, Calina D, Albu CV, Catalin B, Turcu-Stiolica A. A Preclinical Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Behavior Testing in Mice Models of Ischemic Stroke. Life (Basel) 2023; 13:life13020567. [PMID: 36836924 PMCID: PMC9964520 DOI: 10.3390/life13020567] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2023] [Revised: 02/10/2023] [Accepted: 02/15/2023] [Indexed: 02/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Stroke remains one of the most important causes of death and disability. Preclinical research is a powerful tool for understanding the molecular and cellular response to stroke. However, a lack of standardization in animal evaluation does not always ensure reproducible results. In the present study, we wanted to identify the best strategy for evaluating animal behavior post-experimental stroke. As such, a meta-analysis was made, evaluating behavioral tests done on male C57BL/6 mice subjected to stroke or sham surgery. Overall, fifty-six studies were included. Our results suggest that different types of tests should be used depending on the post-stroke period one needs to analyze. In the hyper-acute, post-stroke period, the best quantifier will be animal examination scoring, as it is a fast and inexpensive way to identify differences between groups. When evaluating stoke mice in the acute phase, a mix of animal examination and motor tests that focus on movement asymmetry (foot-fault and cylinder testing) seem to have the best chance of picking up differences between groups. Complex tasks (the rotarod test and Morris water maze) should be used within the chronic phase to evaluate differences between the late-subacute and chronic phases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ianis Kevyn Stefan Boboc
- Department of Pharmacology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Craiova, 200349 Craiova, Romania
- Experimental Research Centre for Normal and Pathological Aging, University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Craiova, 200349 Craiova, Romania
- U.M.F. Doctoral School Craiova, University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Craiova, 200349 Craiova, Romania
| | - Alexandra Daniela Rotaru-Zavaleanu
- Experimental Research Centre for Normal and Pathological Aging, University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Craiova, 200349 Craiova, Romania
- Department of Gastroenterology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Craiova, 200349 Craiova, Romania
| | - Daniela Calina
- Department of Clinical Pharmacy, University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Craiova, 200349 Craiova, Romania
| | - Carmen Valeria Albu
- Department of Neurology, Clinical Hospital of Neuropsychiatry, 200473 Craiova, Romania
| | - Bogdan Catalin
- Experimental Research Centre for Normal and Pathological Aging, University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Craiova, 200349 Craiova, Romania
- Department of Physiology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Craiova, 200349 Craiova, Romania
- Correspondence:
| | - Adina Turcu-Stiolica
- Department of Pharmaceutical Management and Marketing, University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Craiova, 200349 Craiova, Romania
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12
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de Almeida GRL, Szczepanik JC, Selhorst I, Cunha MP, Dafre AL. The expanding impact of methylglyoxal on behavior-related disorders. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry 2023; 120:110635. [PMID: 36103947 DOI: 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2022.110635] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2022] [Revised: 09/02/2022] [Accepted: 09/07/2022] [Indexed: 01/17/2023]
Abstract
Methylglyoxal (MGO) is a reactive dicarbonyl compound formed as a byproduct of glycolysis. MGO is a major cell-permeant precursor of advanced glycation end products (AGEs), since it readily reacts with basic phospholipids and nucleotides, as well as amino acid residues of proteins, such as arginine, cysteine, and lysine. The AGEs production induced by MGO are widely associated with several pathologies, including neurodegenerative diseases. However, the impact of MGO metabolism and AGEs formation in the central nervous system (particularly in neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes) on behavior and psychiatric diseases is not fully understood. Here, we briefly present background information on the biological activity of MGO in the central nervous system. It was gathered the available information on the role of MGO metabolism at the physiological processes, as well as at the neurobiology of psychiatry diseases, especially pain-related experiences, anxiety, depression, and cognition impairment-associated diseases. To clarify the role of MGO on behavior and associated diseases, we reviewed primarily the main findings at preclinical studies focusing on genetic and pharmacological approaches. Since monoamine neurotransmitter systems are implicated as pivotal targets on the pathophysiology and treatment of psychiatry and cognitive-related diseases, we also reviewed how MGO affects these neurotransmission systems and the implications of this phenomenon for nociception and pain; learning and cognition; and mood. In summary, this review highlights the pivotal role of glyoxalase 1 (Glo1) and MGO levels in modulating behavioral phenotypes, as well as related cellular and molecular signaling. Conclusively, this review signals dopamine as a new neurochemical MGO target, as well as highlights how MGO metabolism can modulate the pathophysiology and treatment of pain, psychiatric and cognitive-related diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gudrian R L de Almeida
- Department of Biochemistry, Federal University of Santa Catarina, 88040-900 Florianópolis, SC, Brazil
| | - Jozimar C Szczepanik
- Department of Biochemistry, Federal University of Santa Catarina, 88040-900 Florianópolis, SC, Brazil
| | - Ingrid Selhorst
- Department of Biochemistry, Federal University of Santa Catarina, 88040-900 Florianópolis, SC, Brazil
| | - Mauricio P Cunha
- Department of Biochemistry, Federal University of Santa Catarina, 88040-900 Florianópolis, SC, Brazil; Department of Basic Sciences of Life, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, 35010-177 Governador Valadares, MG, Brazil.
| | - Alcir L Dafre
- Department of Biochemistry, Federal University of Santa Catarina, 88040-900 Florianópolis, SC, Brazil
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13
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Kaluve AM, Le JT, Graham BM. Female rodents are not more variable than male rodents: a meta-analysis of preclinical studies of fear and anxiety. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2022; 143:104962. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104962] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/04/2022] [Revised: 09/29/2022] [Accepted: 11/13/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
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14
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Miller LN, Weiss C, Disterhoft JF. Learning-related changes in cellular activity within mouse dentate gyrus during trace eyeblink conditioning. Hippocampus 2022; 32:776-794. [PMID: 36018285 PMCID: PMC9489639 DOI: 10.1002/hipo.23468] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2022] [Revised: 08/01/2022] [Accepted: 08/08/2022] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
Because the dentate gyrus serves as the first site for information processing in the hippocampal trisynaptic circuit, it an important structure for the formation of associative memories. Previous findings in rabbit had recorded populations of cells within dentate gyrus that may bridge the temporal gap between stimuli to support memory formation during trace eyeblink conditioning, an associative learning task. However, this previous work was unable to identify the types of cells demonstrating this type of activity. To explore these changes further, we did in vivo single-neuron recording in conjunction with physiological determination of cell types to investigate the functional role of granule cells, mossy cells, and interneurons in dentate gyrus during learning. Tetrode recordings were performed in young-adult mice during training on trace eyeblink conditioning, a hippocampal-dependent temporal associative memory task. Conditioned mice were able to successfully learn the task, with male mice learning at a faster rate than female mice. In the conditioned group, granule cells tended to show an increase in firing rate during conditioned stimulus presentation while mossy cells showed a decrease in firing rate during the trace interval and the unconditioned stimulus. Interestingly, populations of interneurons demonstrated learning-related increases and decreases in activity that began at onset of the conditioned stimulus and persisted through the trace interval. The current study also found a significant increase in theta power during stimuli presentation in conditioned animals, and this change in theta decreased over time. Ultimately, these data suggest unique involvement of granule cells, mossy cells, and interneurons in dentate gyrus in the formation of a trace associative memory. This work expands our knowledge of dentate gyrus function, helping to discern how aging and disease might disrupt this process.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lisa N. Miller
- Department of Neuroscience, Feinberg School of MedicineNorthwestern UniversityChicagoIllinoisUSA
| | - Craig Weiss
- Department of Neuroscience, Feinberg School of MedicineNorthwestern UniversityChicagoIllinoisUSA
| | - John F. Disterhoft
- Department of Neuroscience, Feinberg School of MedicineNorthwestern UniversityChicagoIllinoisUSA
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15
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McLean JW, Bhattrai A, Vitali F, Raikes AC, Wiegand JPL, Brinton RD. Contributions of sex and genotype to exploratory behavior differences in an aged humanized APOE mouse model of late-onset Alzheimer's disease. Learn Mem 2022; 29:321-331. [PMID: 36206387 PMCID: PMC9488030 DOI: 10.1101/lm.053588.122] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2022] [Accepted: 07/26/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Age, genetics, and chromosomal sex have been identified as critical risk factors for late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD). The predominant genetic risk factor for LOAD is the apolipoprotein E ε4 allele (APOE4), and the prevalence of LOAD is higher in females. However, the translational validity of APOE4 mouse models for AD-related cognitive impairment remains to be fully determined. The present study investigated the role of both sex and genotype on learning and memory in aged, humanized APOE knock-in mice. Aged (23.27 mo ± 1.21 mo; 39 male/37 female) APOE3/3, APOE3/4, and APOE4/4 mice performed a novel object recognition (NOR) assay. Task-related metrics were analyzed using two-way sex by genotype ANOVAs. Sex differences were more prominent relative to APOE genotype. Prior to NOR, female mice exhibited thigmotaxic center zone avoidance during the open field task relative to males, regardless of genotype. Within object familiarization and NOR tasks, females had greater object interaction and locomotion. Interestingly, only APOE4/4 females on average recognized the novel object. These results suggest that APOE4, although strongly related to LOAD pathogenesis, does not drive cognitive decline in the absence of other risk factors even in very aged mice. Chromosomal sex is a key driver of behavioral phenotypes and thus is a critical variable for translatability of interventions designed to preserve learning and memory in animal models of LOAD. Last, there was a very high degree of variability in behavioral performance across APOE genotypes. A cluster analysis of the behavioral data revealed a low-activity and a high-activity cluster. APOE4 carriers were overrepresented in the low-activity cluster, while male:female distributions did not differ. Collectively, the behavioral data indicate that chromosomal sex has the greatest impact on behavioral phenotype, and APOE4 carrier status may confer greater risk for cognitive decline in some animals.
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Affiliation(s)
- John W McLean
- Center for Innovation in Brain Science, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA
- Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA
| | - Avnish Bhattrai
- Center for Innovation in Brain Science, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA
- Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85724, USA
| | - Francesca Vitali
- Center for Innovation in Brain Science, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA
| | - Adam C Raikes
- Center for Innovation in Brain Science, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA
| | - Jean-Paul L Wiegand
- Center for Innovation in Brain Science, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA
| | - Roberta Diaz Brinton
- Center for Innovation in Brain Science, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA
- Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85724, USA
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16
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Koblinsky ND, Power KA, Middleton L, Ferland G, Anderson ND. The Role of the Gut Microbiome in Diet and Exercise Effects on Cognition: A Review of the Intervention Literature. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 2022; 78:195-205. [PMID: 35977540 PMCID: PMC9951060 DOI: 10.1093/gerona/glac166] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Interest in the gut-brain axis and its implications for neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, is growing. Microbial imbalances in the gastrointestinal tract, which are associated with impaired cognition, may represent a therapeutic target for lowering dementia risk. Multicomponent lifestyle interventions are a promising dementia risk reduction strategy and most often include diet and exercise, behaviors that are also known to modulate the gut microbiome. A better understanding of the role of the gut microbiome in diet and exercise effects on cognition may help to optimize these lifestyle interventions. The purpose of this review is to summarize findings from diet and exercise interventions that have investigated cognitive changes via effects on the microbiome. We aim to discuss the underlying mechanisms, highlight current gaps in the field, and provide new research directions. There is evidence mainly from rodent studies supporting the notion that microbiota changes mediate the effects of diet and exercise on cognition, with potential mechanisms including end-product metabolites and regulation of local and systemic inflammation. The field lacks whole diet and exercise interventions, especially those involving human participants. It is further limited by heterogeneous rodent models, outcome assessments, and the absence of proper mediation analyses. Trials including older adults with dementia risk factors, factorial designs of diet and exercise, and pre and post measures of microbiota, end-product metabolites, and inflammation would help to elucidate and potentially leverage the role of the microbiome in lowering dementia risk through lifestyle modification.
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Affiliation(s)
- Noah D Koblinsky
- Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Health Sciences, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Krista A Power
- School of Nutrition Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
| | - Laura Middleton
- Department of Kinesiology and Health Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
| | - Guylaine Ferland
- Montreal Heart Institute Research Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada,Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Nicole D Anderson
- Address correspondence to: Nicole D. Anderson, PhD, CPsych, Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Health Sciences, 3560 Bathurst St., M6A 2E1 Toronto, ON, Canada. E-mail:
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17
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Bhadouria N, Berman AG, Wallace JM, Holguin N. Raloxifene Stimulates Estrogen Signaling to Protect Against Age- and Sex-Related Intervertebral Disc Degeneration in Mice. Front Bioeng Biotechnol 2022; 10:924918. [PMID: 36032728 PMCID: PMC9404526 DOI: 10.3389/fbioe.2022.924918] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2022] [Accepted: 06/23/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Estrogen agonist raloxifene is an FDA-approved treatment of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women, which may also be a promising prophylactic for painful intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration. Here, we hypothesized that 1) aging and biological sex contribute to IVD degeneration by reducing estrogen signaling and that 2) raloxifene stimulates estrogen signaling to protect against age- and sex-related IVD degeneration in mice. 2.5-month-old (male and female) and 22.5-month-old (female) C57Bl/6J mice were subcutaneously injected with raloxifene hydrochloride 5x/week for 6 weeks (n = 7-9/grp). Next, female mice were ovariectomized (OVX) or sham operated at 4 months of age and tissues harvested at 6 months (n = 5-6/grp). Advanced aging and OVX increased IVD degeneration score, weakened IVD strength, reduced estrogen receptor-α (ER-α) protein expression, and increased neurotransmitter substance P (SP) expression. Similar to aging and compared with male IVDs, female IVDs were more degenerated, mechanically less viscoelastic, and expressed less ER-α protein, but unlike the effect induced by aging or OVX, IVD mechanical force was greater in females than in males. Therapeutically, systemic injection of raloxifene promoted ER-α protein to quell these dysregulations by enlarging IVD height, alleviating IVD degeneration score, increasing the strength and viscoelastic properties of the IVD, and reducing IVD cell expression of SP in young-adult and old female mice. Transcriptionally, injection of raloxifene upregulated the gene expression of ER-α and extracellular matrix-related anabolism in young-adult and old IVD. In vertebra, advanced aging and OVX reduced trabecular BV/TV, whereas injection of raloxifene increased trabecular BV/TV in young-adult and old female mice, but not in young-adult male mice. In vertebra, advanced aging, OVX, and biological sex (females > males) increased the number of SP-expressing osteocytes, whereas injection of raloxifene reduced the number of SP-expressing osteocytes in young-adult female and male mice and old female mice. Overall, injection of estrogen agonist raloxifene in mice normalized dysregulation of IVD structure, IVD mechanics, and pain-related SP expression in IVD cells and osteocytes induced by aging and biological sex. These data suggest that, in addition to bone loss, raloxifene may relieve painful IVD degeneration in postmenopausal women induced by advanced age, biological sex, and estrogen depletion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Neharika Bhadouria
- School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States,Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN, United States
| | - Alycia G. Berman
- Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States
| | - Joseph M. Wallace
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN, United States,Indiana Center of Musculoskeletal Health, Indianapolis, IN, United States
| | - Nilsson Holguin
- Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN, United States,Indiana Center of Musculoskeletal Health, Indianapolis, IN, United States,Department of Orthopaedics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States,*Correspondence: Nilsson Holguin,
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18
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Könn V, Motrapu M, Świderska MK, Anders HJ. Drug Testing for Chronic Kidney Disease and Diabetes in Animals versus Humans: A Comparative Analysis of Study Designs and Reporting Qualities. Nephron Clin Pract 2022; 146:503-513. [PMID: 35320807 DOI: 10.1159/000523666] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2021] [Accepted: 02/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Diabetes is a highly prevalent accelerator or even cause of chronic kidney disease imposing a large unmet medical need at the global scale. Massive research activities continue to be in search of a cure but the yield of the classical bench-to-bedside research approach has been low. We speculated that a significant mismatch in design and quality of animal and clinical studies in this domain is a hurdle for translation. METHODS We performed a meta-analysis of matched pairs of animal and human studies that tested the efficacy of distinct drug interventions for diabetic kidney disease (DKD). We reviewed study designs and reporting quality of such studies over the last decade according to the standards listed in the CONSORT and ARRIVE recommendations, respectively. RESULTS We noted a wide diversity in the study designs of animal studies in terms of diabetes induction. Major mismatches with the respective human studies referred to age and sex distribution, comorbidities, stage of the kidney disease, and selection of primary endpoints. Usually, treatment was initiated before onset of kidney disease without any standard of care as a background therapy. The reporting quality of animal studies was poor for randomization procedures, blinding, sample size calculation for a prespecified primary endpoint or the safety analysis. Reporting quality of clinical studies had deficits in trial design-, recruitment-, allocation-, and outcome-related aspects. CONCLUSION Bench-to-bedside translation in the domain of DKD suffers from major deficits in the design of experimental studies in view of the projected clinical trials as well as from significant deficits in the reporting quality in preclinical and clinical studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valentin Könn
- Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine IV, Hospital of the Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Manga Motrapu
- Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine IV, Hospital of the Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Monika Katarzyna Świderska
- Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine IV, Hospital of the Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Hans-Joachim Anders
- Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine IV, Hospital of the Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, Munich, Germany
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19
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Nigri M, Åhlgren J, Wolfer DP, Voikar V. Role of Environment and Experimenter in Reproducibility of Behavioral Studies With Laboratory Mice. Front Behav Neurosci 2022; 16:835444. [PMID: 35250504 PMCID: PMC8895324 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2022.835444] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2021] [Accepted: 01/26/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Behavioral phenotyping of mice has received a great deal of attention during the past three decades. However, there is still a pressing need to understand the variability caused by environmental and biological factors, human interference, and poorly standardized experimental protocols. The inconsistency of results is often attributed to the inter-individual difference between the experimenters and environmental conditions. The present work aims to dissect the combined influence of the experimenter and the environment on the detection of behavioral traits in two inbred strains most commonly used in behavioral genetics due to their contrasting phenotypes, the C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice. To this purpose, the elevated O-maze, the open field with object, the accelerating rotarod and the Barnes maze tests were performed by two experimenters in two diverse laboratory environments. Our findings confirm the well-characterized behavioral differences between these strains in exploratory behavior, motor performance, learning and memory. Moreover, the results demonstrate how the experimenter and the environment influence the behavioral tests with a variable-dependent effect, often with mutually exclusive contributions. In this context, our study highlights how both the experimenter and the environment can have an impact on the strain effect size without altering the direction of the conclusions. Importantly, the general agreement on the results is reached by converging evidence from multiple measures addressing the same trait. In conclusion, the present work elucidates the contribution of both the experimenter and the laboratory environment in the intricate field of reproducibility in mouse behavioral phenotyping.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martina Nigri
- Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Anatomy, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Department of Health Sciences and Technology, Institute of Human Movement Sciences and Sport, ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
- *Correspondence: Martina Nigri,
| | - Johanna Åhlgren
- Laboratory Animal Center, HiLIFE, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - David P. Wolfer
- Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Anatomy, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Department of Health Sciences and Technology, Institute of Human Movement Sciences and Sport, ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Vootele Voikar
- Laboratory Animal Center, HiLIFE, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Neuroscience Center, HiLIFE, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Vootele Voikar,
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20
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Lalonde R, Strazielle C. The AGTPBP1 gene in neurobiology. Gene 2022; 809:146001. [PMID: 34637898 DOI: 10.1016/j.gene.2021.146001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2021] [Revised: 07/16/2021] [Accepted: 07/19/2021] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
The function of the Agtpbp1 gene has mainly been delineated by studying Agtpbp1pcd (pcd) mutant mice, characterized by losses in cerebellar Purkinje and granule cells along with degeneration of retinal photoreceptors, mitral cells of the olfactory bulb, thalamic neurons, and alpha-motoneurons. As a result of cerebellar degeneration, cerebellar GABA and glutamate concentrations in Agtpbp1pcd mutants decreased while monoamine concentrations increased. The salient behavioral phenotypes include cerebellar ataxia, a loss in motor coordination, and cognitive deficits. Similar neuropathogical and behavioral profiles have been described in childhood-onset human subjects with biallelic variants of AGTPBP1, including cerebellar ataxia and hypotonia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert Lalonde
- University of Rouen, Dept Psychology, 76821 Mont-Saint-Aignan, France; Laboratory of Stress, Immunity, Pathogens (EA7300), University of Lorraine Medical School, Vandœuvre-les-Nancy, France.
| | - Catherine Strazielle
- Laboratory of Stress, Immunity, Pathogens (EA7300), University of Lorraine Medical School, Vandœuvre-les-Nancy, France; CHRU Nancy, Vandœuvre-les-Nancy, France
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21
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Lataliza AAB, de Assis PM, da Rocha Laurindo L, Gonçalves ECD, Raposo NRB, Dutra RC. Antidepressant-like effect of rosmarinic acid during LPS-induced neuroinflammatory model: The potential role of cannabinoid receptors/PPAR-γ signaling pathway. Phytother Res 2021; 35:6974-6989. [PMID: 34709695 DOI: 10.1002/ptr.7318] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/13/2021] [Revised: 09/17/2021] [Accepted: 10/13/2021] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
Rosmarinic acid (RA), an ester of caffeic acid and 3, 4-dihydroxyphenyllactic acid, has anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective activities. Herein, this study investigated in silico the drug-likeness and the potential molecular targets to RA. Moreover, it tested the antidepressant-like potential of RA in the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced depression model. RA (MW = 360.31 g/mol) meets the criteria of both Lipinski's rule of five and the Ghose filter. It also attends to relevant pharmacokinetic parameters. Target prediction analysis identified RA's potential targets and biological activities, including the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) and the cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2 . In vivo, RA's acute, repetitive, and therapeutic administration showed antidepressant-like effect since it significantly reduced the immobility time in the tail suspension test and increased grooming time in the splash test. Further, the pretreatment with antagonists of CB1 , CB2 , and PPAR-γ receptors significantly blocked the antidepressant-like effect of RA. Altogether, our findings suggest that cannabinoid receptors/PPAR-γ signaling pathways are involved with the antidepressant-like effect of RA. Moreover, this molecule meets important physicochemical and pharmacokinetic parameters that favor its bioavailability. RA constitutes a promising, innovative, and safe molecule for the pharmacotherapy of major depressive disorder.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexandre Augusto Barros Lataliza
- Laboratory of Autoimmunity and Immunopharmacology, Department of Health Sciences, Campus Araranguá, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Araranguá, Brazil
- Post-Graduate Program of Neuroscience, Center of Biological Sciences, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil
| | - Pollyana Mendonça de Assis
- Center for Research and Innovation in Health Sciences (NUPICS), Faculty of Pharmacy, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil
| | - Larissa da Rocha Laurindo
- Laboratory of Autoimmunity and Immunopharmacology, Department of Health Sciences, Campus Araranguá, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Araranguá, Brazil
| | - Elaine Cristina Dalazen Gonçalves
- Laboratory of Autoimmunity and Immunopharmacology, Department of Health Sciences, Campus Araranguá, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Araranguá, Brazil
- Post-Graduate Program of Neuroscience, Center of Biological Sciences, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil
| | - Nádia Rezende Barbosa Raposo
- Center for Research and Innovation in Health Sciences (NUPICS), Faculty of Pharmacy, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil
| | - Rafael Cypriano Dutra
- Laboratory of Autoimmunity and Immunopharmacology, Department of Health Sciences, Campus Araranguá, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Araranguá, Brazil
- Post-Graduate Program of Neuroscience, Center of Biological Sciences, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil
- Laboratory of Neurobiology of Pain and Inflammation, Department of Physiological Sciences, Center of Biological Sciences, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil
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22
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Garrick JM, Cole TB, Bammler TK, MacDonald JW, Marsillach J, Furlong CE, Costa LG. Paraoxonase 2 deficiency in mice alters motor behavior and causes region-specific transcript changes in the brain. Neurotoxicol Teratol 2021; 87:107010. [PMID: 34216730 PMCID: PMC8440460 DOI: 10.1016/j.ntt.2021.107010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2021] [Revised: 06/07/2021] [Accepted: 06/28/2021] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
Paraoxonase 2 (PON2) is an intracellular antioxidant enzyme shown to play an important role in mitigating oxidative stress in the brain. Oxidative stress is a common mechanism of toxicity for neurotoxicants and is increasingly implicated in the etiology of multiple neurological diseases. While PON2 deficiency increases oxidative stress in the brain in-vitro, little is known about its effects on behavior in-vivo and what global transcript changes occur from PON2 deficiency. We sought to characterize the effects of PON2 deficiency on behavior in mice, with an emphasis on locomotion, and evaluate transcriptional changes with RNA-Seq. Behavioral endpoints included home-cage behavior (Noldus PhenoTyper), motor coordination (Rotarod) and various gait metrics (Noldus CatWalk). Home-cage behavior analysis showed PON2 deficient mice had increased activity at night compared to wildtype controls and spent more time in the center of the cage, displaying a possible anxiolytic phenotype. PON2 deficient mice had significantly shorter latency to fall when tested on the rotarod, suggesting impaired motor coordination. Minimal gait alterations were observed, with decreased girdle support posture noted as the only significant change in gait with PON2 deficiency. Beyond one home-cage metric, no significant sex-based behavioral differences were found in this study. Finally, A subset of samples were utilized for RNA-Seq analysis, looking at three discrete brain regions: cerebral cortex, striatum, and cerebellum. Highly regional- and sex-specific changes in RNA expression were found when comparing PON2 deficient and wildtype mice, suggesting PON2 may play distinct regional roles in the brain in a sex-specific manner. Taken together, these findings demonstrates that PON2 deficiency significantly alters the brain on both a biochemical and phenotypic level, with a specific impact on motor function. These data have implications for future gene-environment toxicological studies and warrants further investigation of the role of PON2 in the brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jacqueline M Garrick
- Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States..
| | - Toby B Cole
- Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States.; Center on Human Development and Disabilities, University of Washington, United States
| | - Theo K Bammler
- Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States
| | - James W MacDonald
- Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States
| | - Judit Marsillach
- Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States
| | - Clement E Furlong
- Depts. of Medicine (Div. Medical Genetics) and of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, United States
| | - Lucio G Costa
- Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States.; Dept. of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma, Italy
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23
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Lovick TA, Zangrossi H. Effect of Estrous Cycle on Behavior of Females in Rodent Tests of Anxiety. Front Psychiatry 2021; 12:711065. [PMID: 34531768 PMCID: PMC8438218 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.711065] [Citation(s) in RCA: 63] [Impact Index Per Article: 21.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/17/2021] [Accepted: 08/04/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Anxiety disorders are more prevalent in women than in men. In women the menstrual cycle introduces another variable; indeed, some conditions e.g., premenstrual syndrome, are menstrual cycle specific. Animal models of fear and anxiety, which form the basis for research into drug treatments, have been developed almost exclusively, using males. There remains a paucity of work using females and the available literature presents a confusing picture. One confound is the estrous cycle in females, which some authors consider, but many do not. Importantly, there are no accepted standardized criteria for defining cycle phase, which is important given the rapidly changing hormonal profile during the 4-day cycle of rodents. Moreover, since many behavioral tests that involve a learning component or that consider extinction of a previously acquired association require several days to complete; the outcome may depend on the phase of the cycle on the days of training as well as on test days. In this article we consider responsiveness of females compared to males in a number of commonly used behavioral tests of anxiety and fear that were developed in male rodents. We conclude that females perform in a qualitatively similar manner to males in most tests although there may be sex and strain differences in sensitivity. Tests based on unconditioned threatening stimuli are significantly influenced by estrous cycle phase with animals displaying increased responsiveness in the late diestrus phase of the cycle (similar to the premenstrual phase in women). Tests that utilize conditioned fear paradigms, which involve a learning component appear to be less impacted by the estrous cycle although sex and cycle-related differences in responding can still be detected. Ethologically-relevant tests appear to have more translational value in females. However, even when sex differences in behavior are not detected, the same outward behavioral response may be mediated by different brain mechanisms. In order to progress basic research in the field of female psychiatry and psychopharmacology, there is a pressing need to validate and standardize experimental protocols for using female animal models of anxiety-related states.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thelma A. Lovick
- Physiology, Pharmacology & Neuroscience, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Hélio Zangrossi
- Department of Pharmacology, Ribeirão Preto Medical School of the University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil
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24
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Ismail M, Alsalahi A, Aljaberi MA, Ibrahim RM, Bakar FA, Ideris A. Efficacy of Edible Bird's Nest on Cognitive Functions in Experimental Animal Models: A Systematic Review. Nutrients 2021; 13:nu13031028. [PMID: 33806762 PMCID: PMC8004720 DOI: 10.3390/nu13031028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2021] [Revised: 02/21/2021] [Accepted: 02/22/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Edible bird’s nest (EBN) is constructed from saliva of swiftlets birds and consumed largely by Southeast and East Asians for its nutritional value and anti-aging properties. Although the neuroprotection of EBN in animals has been reported, there has not been yet systemically summarized. Thus, this review systemically outlined the evidence of the neuroprotective activity of EBN in modulating the cognitive functions of either healthy or with induced-cognitive dysfunction animals as compared to placebos. The related records from 2010 to 2020 were retrieved from PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and ScienceDirect using pre-specified keywords. The relevant records to the effect of EBN on cognition were selected according to the eligibility criteria and these studies underwent appraisal for the risk of bias. EBN improved the cognitive functions of induced-cognitive dysfunction and enhanced the cognitive performance of healthy animals as well as attenuated the neuroinflammations and neuro-oxidative stress in the hippocampus of these animals. Malaysian EBN could improve the cognitive functions of experimental animals as a treatment in induced cognitive dysfunction, a nutritional cognitive-enhancing agent in offspring and a prophylactic conservative effect on cognition against exposure to subsequent noxious cerebral accidents in a dose-depended manner through attenuating neuroinflammation and neuro-oxidative stress. This systemic review did not proceed meta-analysis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maznah Ismail
- Laboratory of Natural Medicines and Products, Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang 43400 UPM, Selangor, Malaysia;
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +60-10-3600015
| | - Abdulsamad Alsalahi
- Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Sana’a University, Mazbah District, Sana’a 1247, Yemen;
| | - Musheer Abdulwahid Aljaberi
- Department of Community Health, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang 43400 UPM, Selangor, Malaysia;
| | - Ramlah Mohamad Ibrahim
- Laboratory of Natural Medicines and Products, Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang 43400 UPM, Selangor, Malaysia;
| | - Faizah Abu Bakar
- UZMA Clinic, Kelana Mall, SS6/12 Road, SS 6, Petaling Jaya 47301, Selangor, Malaysia;
| | - Aini Ideris
- Department of Veterinary Clinical Studies, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang 43400 UPM, Selangor, Malaysia;
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25
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Intact Female Mice Acquire Trace Eyeblink Conditioning Faster than Male and Ovariectomized Female Mice. eNeuro 2021; 8:ENEURO.0199-20.2021. [PMID: 33531367 PMCID: PMC7986530 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0199-20.2021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/18/2020] [Revised: 12/04/2020] [Accepted: 01/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Female subjects have been widely excluded from past neuroscience work because of a number of biases, including the notion that cycling sex hormones increase variability. However, it is necessary to conduct behavioral research in mice that includes both sexes as mice are typically used for developing and evaluating future therapeutics. Understanding sex differences in learning is fundamental for the development of targeted therapies for numerous neurologic and neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, which is more prevalent in females than males. This study set out to confirm the role of sex and necessity of circulating ovarian hormones in the acquisition of the temporal associative memory task trace eyeblink conditioning (tEBC) in C57BL/6J mice. We present evidence that sex and ovarian hormones are important factors in learning. Specifically, intact female mice learn significantly faster than both male and ovariectomized (ovx) female mice. Data from pseudoconditioned control mice indicate that sex differences are because of differences in learned associations, not sensitization or spontaneous blink rate. This study strengthens the idea that ovarian hormones such as estrogen and progesterone significantly influence learning and memory and that further research is needed to determine the underlying mechanisms behind their effects. Overall, our findings emphasize the necessity of including both sexes in future behavioral studies.
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26
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Go MA, Rogers J, Gava GP, Davey CE, Prado S, Liu Y, Schultz SR. Place Cells in Head-Fixed Mice Navigating a Floating Real-World Environment. Front Cell Neurosci 2021; 15:618658. [PMID: 33642996 PMCID: PMC7906988 DOI: 10.3389/fncel.2021.618658] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2020] [Accepted: 01/25/2020] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
The hippocampal place cell system in rodents has provided a major paradigm for the scientific investigation of memory function and dysfunction. Place cells have been observed in area CA1 of the hippocampus of both freely moving animals, and of head-fixed animals navigating in virtual reality environments. However, spatial coding in virtual reality preparations has been observed to be impaired. Here we show that the use of a real-world environment system for head-fixed mice, consisting of an air-floating track with proximal cues, provides some advantages over virtual reality systems for the study of spatial memory. We imaged the hippocampus of head-fixed mice injected with the genetically encoded calcium indicator GCaMP6s while they navigated circularly constrained or open environments on the floating platform. We observed consistent place tuning in a substantial fraction of cells despite the absence of distal visual cues. Place fields remapped when animals entered a different environment. When animals re-entered the same environment, place fields typically remapped over a time period of multiple days, faster than in freely moving preparations, but comparable with virtual reality. Spatial information rates were within the range observed in freely moving mice. Manifold analysis indicated that spatial information could be extracted from a low-dimensional subspace of the neural population dynamics. This is the first demonstration of place cells in head-fixed mice navigating on an air-lifted real-world platform, validating its use for the study of brain circuits involved in memory and affected by neurodegenerative disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mary Ann Go
- Department of Bioengineering and Centre for Neurotechnology, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Jake Rogers
- Department of Bioengineering and Centre for Neurotechnology, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Giuseppe P. Gava
- Department of Bioengineering and Centre for Neurotechnology, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Catherine E. Davey
- Department of Bioengineering and Centre for Neurotechnology, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - Seigfred Prado
- Department of Bioengineering and Centre for Neurotechnology, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Yu Liu
- Department of Bioengineering and Centre for Neurotechnology, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Simon R. Schultz
- Department of Bioengineering and Centre for Neurotechnology, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
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27
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Zajitschek SR, Zajitschek F, Bonduriansky R, Brooks RC, Cornwell W, Falster DS, Lagisz M, Mason J, Senior AM, Noble DW, Nakagawa S. Sexual dimorphism in trait variability and its eco-evolutionary and statistical implications. eLife 2020; 9:63170. [PMID: 33198888 PMCID: PMC7704105 DOI: 10.7554/elife.63170] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/16/2020] [Accepted: 10/30/2020] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Biomedical and clinical sciences are experiencing a renewed interest in the fact that males and females differ in many anatomic, physiological, and behavioural traits. Sex differences in trait variability, however, are yet to receive similar recognition. In medical science, mammalian females are assumed to have higher trait variability due to estrous cycles (the ‘estrus-mediated variability hypothesis’); historically in biomedical research, females have been excluded for this reason. Contrastingly, evolutionary theory and associated data support the ‘greater male variability hypothesis’. Here, we test these competing hypotheses in 218 traits measured in >26,900 mice, using meta-analysis methods. Neither hypothesis could universally explain patterns in trait variability. Sex bias in variability was trait-dependent. While greater male variability was found in morphological traits, females were much more variable in immunological traits. Sex-specific variability has eco-evolutionary ramifications, including sex-dependent responses to climate change, as well as statistical implications including power analysis considering sex difference in variance. Males and females differ in appearance, physiology and behavior. But we do not fully understand the health and evolutionary consequences of these differences. One reason for this is that, until recently, females were often excluded from medical studies. This made it difficult to know if a treatment would perform as well in females as males. To correct this, organizations that fund research now require scientists to include both sexes in studies. This has led to some questions about how to account for sex differences in studies. One reason females have historically been excluded from medical studies is that some scientists assumed that they would have more variable responses to a particular treatment based on their estrous cycles. Other scientists, however, believe that males of a given species might be more variable because of the evolutionary pressures they face in competing for mates. Better understanding how males and females vary would help scientists better design studies to ensure they provide accurate answers. Now, Zajitschek et al. debunk both the idea that males are more variable and the idea that females are more variable. To do this, Zajitschek et al. analyzed differences in 218 traits, like body size or certain behaviors, among nearly 27,000 male and female mice. This showed that neither male mice nor female mice were universally more different from other mice of their sex across all features. Instead, sex differences in how much variation existed in male or female mice depended on the individual trait. For example, males varied more in physical features like size, while females showed more differences in their immune systems. The results suggest it is particularly important to consider sex-specific variability in both medical and other types of studies. To help other researchers better design experiments to factor in such variability, Zajitschek et al. created an interactive tool that will allow scientists to look at sex-based differences in individual features among male or female mice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susanne Rk Zajitschek
- Evolution & Ecology Research Center, School of Biological, Earth, and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.,Liverpool John Moores University, School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Liverpool, United Kingdom
| | - Felix Zajitschek
- Evolution & Ecology Research Center, School of Biological, Earth, and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - Russell Bonduriansky
- Evolution & Ecology Research Center, School of Biological, Earth, and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - Robert C Brooks
- Evolution & Ecology Research Center, School of Biological, Earth, and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - Will Cornwell
- Evolution & Ecology Research Center, School of Biological, Earth, and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - Daniel S Falster
- Evolution & Ecology Research Center, School of Biological, Earth, and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - Malgorzata Lagisz
- Evolution & Ecology Research Center, School of Biological, Earth, and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - Jeremy Mason
- European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, United Kingdom
| | - Alistair M Senior
- University of Sydney, Charles Perkins Centre, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, School of Mathematics and Statistics, Sydney, Australia
| | - Daniel Wa Noble
- Evolution & Ecology Research Center, School of Biological, Earth, and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.,Division of Ecology and Evolution, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
| | - Shinichi Nakagawa
- Evolution & Ecology Research Center, School of Biological, Earth, and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
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28
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BORBÉLYOVÁ V, JANIŠOVÁ K, MYSLIVEČEK J, RILJAK V. Sex-Related Differences in Locomotion and Climbing of C57Bl/6NTac Mice in a Novel Environment. Physiol Res 2019; 68:S353-S359. [DOI: 10.33549/physiolres.934348] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Laboratory mice in standard laboratory cages, besides horizontal and vertical locomotor activity, spontaneously display cage-bar related activities such as cage-grid climbing. Although, grid-climbing activity is one of the major components of spontaneous home-cage behavior of mice, its exact role is not fully understood. This study aimed to describe the sex-differences in coping with novelty and in spontaneous behavior of laboratory mice concerning the cage-climbing activity in an observer-independent open field test. Adult mice of both sexes (C57Bl/6NTac) underwent behavioral testing in LABORAS system. Female mice travelled significantly longer distance (by 30 %, p<0.05) and showed higher grid-climbing activity (by 50 %, p<0.05) than males. Based on our results, the grid-climbing is a sex-dependent activity of mice, however, its exact role remains to be elucidated.
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Affiliation(s)
- V. BORBÉLYOVÁ
- Institute of Molecular Biomedicine, Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovak Republic
| | - K. JANIŠOVÁ
- Department of Physiology, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - J. MYSLIVEČEK
- Department of Physiology, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - V. RILJAK
- Department of Physiology, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
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29
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Gulinello M, Mitchell HA, Chang Q, Timothy O'Brien W, Zhou Z, Abel T, Wang L, Corbin JG, Veeraragavan S, Samaco RC, Andrews NA, Fagiolini M, Cole TB, Burbacher TM, Crawley JN. Rigor and reproducibility in rodent behavioral research. Neurobiol Learn Mem 2019; 165:106780. [PMID: 29307548 PMCID: PMC6034984 DOI: 10.1016/j.nlm.2018.01.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 53] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2017] [Revised: 12/22/2017] [Accepted: 01/03/2018] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Abstract
Behavioral neuroscience research incorporates the identical high level of meticulous methodologies and exacting attention to detail as all other scientific disciplines. To achieve maximal rigor and reproducibility of findings, well-trained investigators employ a variety of established best practices. Here we explicate some of the requirements for rigorous experimental design and accurate data analysis in conducting mouse and rat behavioral tests. Novel object recognition is used as an example of a cognitive assay which has been conducted successfully with a range of methods, all based on common principles of appropriate procedures, controls, and statistics. Directors of Rodent Core facilities within Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Centers contribute key aspects of their own novel object recognition protocols, offering insights into essential similarities and less-critical differences. Literature cited in this review article will lead the interested reader to source papers that provide step-by-step protocols which illustrate optimized methods for many standard rodent behavioral assays. Adhering to best practices in behavioral neuroscience will enhance the value of animal models for the multiple goals of understanding biological mechanisms, evaluating consequences of genetic mutations, and discovering efficacious therapeutics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Gulinello
- IDDRC Behavioral Core Facility, Neuroscience Department, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10461, USA
| | - Heather A Mitchell
- IDD Models Core, Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin Madison, Madison, WI 53705, USA
| | - Qiang Chang
- IDD Models Core, Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin Madison, Madison, WI 53705, USA
| | - W Timothy O'Brien
- IDDRC Preclinical Models Core, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Zhaolan Zhou
- IDDRC Preclinical Models Core, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Ted Abel
- IDDRC Preclinical Models Core, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; Current affiliation: Iowa Neuroscience Institute, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
| | - Li Wang
- IDDRC Neurobehavioral Core, Center for Neuroscience Research, Children's National Health System, Washington, DC 20010, USA
| | - Joshua G Corbin
- IDDRC Neurobehavioral Core, Center for Neuroscience Research, Children's National Health System, Washington, DC 20010, USA
| | - Surabi Veeraragavan
- IDDRC Neurobehavioral Core, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Rodney C Samaco
- IDDRC Neurobehavioral Core, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Nick A Andrews
- IDDRC Neurodevelopmental Behavior Core, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Michela Fagiolini
- IDDRC Neurodevelopmental Behavior Core, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Toby B Cole
- IDDRC Rodent Behavior Laboratory, Center on Human Development and Disability, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
| | - Thomas M Burbacher
- IDDRC Rodent Behavior Laboratory, Center on Human Development and Disability, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
| | - Jacqueline N Crawley
- IDDRC Rodent Behavior Core, MIND Institute, University of California Davis School of Medicine, Sacramento, CA 95817, USA.
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30
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Genetic Ablation of Neural Progenitor Cells Impairs Acquisition of Trace Eyeblink Conditioning. eNeuro 2019; 6:ENEURO.0251-19.2019. [PMID: 31527056 PMCID: PMC6785540 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0251-19.2019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2019] [Revised: 08/09/2019] [Accepted: 08/23/2019] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Adult-born neurons are believed to play a role in memory formation by providing enhanced plasticity to the hippocampus. Past studies have demonstrated that reduction of neurogenesis impairs associative learning, but these experiments used irradiation or neurotoxic substances, which may have had unintended off-target effects. Therefore, to investigate the role of these adult-born neurons more precisely, we used nestin-HSV-TK transgenic mice (Nes-TK) to selectively ablate newborn neurons. Nes-TK mice were fed a chow infused with valganciclovir to induce the ablation of neural progenitor cells. After being on this diet for 4 weeks, mice were trained on trace eyeblink conditioning, a hippocampus-dependent temporal associative memory task. Following the completion of training, brain sections from these animals were stained for doublecortin, a marker for immature neurons, to quantify levels of neurogenesis. We found that male transgenic mice on valganciclovir had significantly decreased amounts of doublecortin relative to male control animals, indicating a successful reduction in levels of neurogenesis. In conjunction with this reduction in neurogenesis, the male transgenic mice on valganciclovir learned at a significantly slower rate than male control mice. The female Nes-TK mice on valganciclovir showed no significant decrease in neurogenesis and no behavioral impairment relative to female control mice. Ultimately, the results are consistent with, and expand upon, prior studies that demonstrated that adult-born neurons are involved in the formation of associative memories. This study also provides a foundation to continue to explore the physiological role of newborn neurons with in vivo recordings during behavioral training.
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31
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Cooke MB, O'Leary TP, Harris P, Ma R, Brown RE, Snyder JS. Pathfinder: open source software for analyzing spatial navigation search strategies. F1000Res 2019; 8:1521. [PMID: 32025289 PMCID: PMC6974928 DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.20352.2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/10/2020] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Spatial navigation is a universal behavior that varies depending on goals, experience and available sensory stimuli. Spatial navigational tasks are routinely used to study learning, memory and goal-directed behavior, in both animals and humans. One popular paradigm for testing spatial memory is the Morris water maze, where subjects learn the location of a hidden platform that offers escape from a pool of water. Researchers typically express learning as a function of the latency to escape, though this reveals little about the underlying navigational strategies. Recently, a number of studies have begun to classify water maze search strategies in order to clarify the precise spatial and mnemonic functions of different brain regions, and to identify which aspects of spatial memory are disrupted in disease models. However, despite their usefulness, strategy analyses have not been widely adopted due to the lack of software to automate analyses. To address this need we developed Pathfinder, an open source application for analyzing spatial navigation behaviors. In a representative dataset, we show that Pathfinder effectively characterizes the development of highly-specific spatial search strategies as male and female mice learn a standard spatial water maze. Pathfinder can read data files from commercially- and freely-available software packages, is optimized for classifying search strategies in water maze paradigms, and can also be used to analyze 2D navigation by other species, and in other tasks, as long as timestamped xy coordinates are available. Pathfinder is simple to use, can automatically determine pool and platform geometry, generates heat maps, analyzes navigation with respect to multiple goal locations, and can be updated to accommodate future developments in spatial behavioral analyses. Given these features, Pathfinder may be a useful tool for studying how navigational strategies are regulated by the environment, depend on specific neural circuits, and are altered by pathology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew B Cooke
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z4, Canada.,Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancovuer, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
| | - Timothy P O'Leary
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z4, Canada.,Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancovuer, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
| | - Phelan Harris
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z4, Canada.,Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancovuer, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
| | - Ricky Ma
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z4, Canada.,Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancovuer, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
| | - Richard E Brown
- Psychology and Neuroscience Department, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 4R2, Canada
| | - Jason S Snyder
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z4, Canada.,Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancovuer, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
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Cooke MB, O'Leary TP, Harris P, Ma R, Brown RE, Snyder JS. Pathfinder: open source software for analyzing spatial navigation search strategies. F1000Res 2019; 8:1521. [PMID: 32025289 DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.20352.1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/21/2019] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Spatial navigation is a universal behavior that varies depending on goals, experience and available sensory stimuli. Spatial navigational tasks are routinely used to study learning, memory and goal-directed behavior, in both animals and humans. One popular paradigm for testing spatial memory is the Morris water maze, where subjects learn the location of a hidden platform that offers escape from a pool of water. Researchers typically express learning as a function of the latency to escape, though this reveals little about the underlying navigational strategies. Recently, a number of studies have begun to classify water maze search strategies in order to clarify the precise spatial and mnemonic functions of different brain regions, and to identify which aspects of spatial memory are disrupted in disease models. However, despite their usefulness, strategy analyses have not been widely adopted due to the lack of software to automate analyses. To address this need we developed Pathfinder, an open source application for analyzing spatial navigation behaviors. In a representative dataset, we show that Pathfinder effectively characterizes the development of highly-specific spatial search strategies as male and female mice learn a standard spatial water maze. Pathfinder can read data files from commercially- and freely-available software packages, is optimized for classifying search strategies in water maze paradigms, and can also be used to analyze 2D navigation by other species, and in other tasks, as long as timestamped xy coordinates are available. Pathfinder is simple to use, can automatically determine pool and platform geometry, generates heat maps, analyzes navigation with respect to multiple goal locations, and can be updated to accommodate future developments in spatial behavioral analyses. Given these features, Pathfinder may be a useful tool for studying how navigational strategies are regulated by the environment, depend on specific neural circuits, and are altered by pathology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew B Cooke
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z4, Canada.,Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancovuer, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
| | - Timothy P O'Leary
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z4, Canada.,Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancovuer, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
| | - Phelan Harris
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z4, Canada.,Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancovuer, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
| | - Ricky Ma
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z4, Canada.,Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancovuer, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
| | - Richard E Brown
- Psychology and Neuroscience Department, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 4R2, Canada
| | - Jason S Snyder
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z4, Canada.,Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancovuer, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada
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Sex still matters: has the prevalence of male-only studies of drug effects on rodent behaviour changed during the past decade? Behav Pharmacol 2019; 30:95-99. [PMID: 29847339 DOI: 10.1097/fbp.0000000000000410] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Abstract
During the past 10 years, for a number of biomedical disciplines, including behavioural pharmacology, there have been appeals to include both sexes in animal studies of processes that are not sex specific. In 2007, a survey of experimental studies of drug or other chemical effects on rodent behaviour, published in five prominent journals over 20 months (February 2005 to September 2006, inclusive), revealed that 85% of these conducted with rats and 78% of these conducted with mice involved males only. This was in spite of the evidence of sex differences in responsiveness to an increasing number of compounds. To see if the situation has improved, the survey was repeated with the same journals for a comparable period namely, February 2016 to September 2017 (inclusive). Even though there have been repeated appeals for biomedical research that is not sex specific to involve both sexes, it was apparent that little has changed since 2005-2006, as 82% of rat and 75% of mouse studies were again conducted with males only. However, there was an increase in studies with mice, which may be owing to a greater interest in genetic factors. The male-only situation could be rectified by appropriate funding agencies and journals that publish behavioural pharmacological research insisting that both sexes must be included in research that is not sex specific along with valid scientific justification for single-sex studies, as now typifies some other disciplines.
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Abstract
Extensive research demonstrates unequivocally that nutrition plays a fundamental role in maintaining health and preventing disease. In parallel nutrition research provides evidence that the risks and benefits of diet and lifestyle choices do not affect people equally, as people are inherently variable in their responses to nutrition and associated interventions to maintain health and prevent disease. To simplify the inherent complexity of human subjects and their nutrition, with the aim of managing expectations for dietary guidance required to ensure healthy populations and individuals, nutrition researchers often seek to group individuals based on commonly used criteria. This strategy relies on demonstrating meaningful conclusions based on comparison of group mean responses of assigned groups. Such studies are often confounded by the heterogeneous nutrition response. Commonly used criteria applied in grouping study populations and individuals to identify mechanisms and determinants of responses to nutrition often contribute to the problem of interpreting the results of group comparisons. Challenges of interpreting the group mean using diverse populations will be discussed with respect to studies in human subjects, in vivo and in vitro model systems. Future advances in nutrition research to tackle inter-individual variation require a coordinated approach from funders, learned societies, nutrition scientists, publishers and reviewers of the scientific literature. This will be essential to develop and implement improved study design, data recording, analysis and reporting to facilitate more insightful interpretation of the group mean with respect to population diversity and the heterogeneous nutrition response.
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Åhlgren J, Voikar V. Experiments done in Black-6 mice: what does it mean? Lab Anim (NY) 2019; 48:171-180. [DOI: 10.1038/s41684-019-0288-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2018] [Accepted: 03/19/2019] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
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Prager EM, Chambers KE, Plotkin JL, McArthur DL, Bandrowski AE, Bansal N, Martone ME, Bergstrom HC, Bespalov A, Graf C. Improving transparency and scientific rigor in academic publishing. Cancer Rep (Hoboken) 2019; 2:e1150. [PMID: 32721132 PMCID: PMC7941525 DOI: 10.1002/cnr2.1150] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Progress in basic and clinical research is slowed when researchers fail to provide a complete and accurate report of how a study was designed, executed, and the results analyzed. Publishing rigorous scientific research involves a full description of the methods, materials, procedures, and outcomes. Investigators may fail to provide a complete description of how their study was designed and executed because they may not know how to accurately report the information or the mechanisms are not in place to facilitate transparent reporting. Here, we provide an overview of how authors can write manuscripts in a transparent and thorough manner. We introduce a set of reporting criteria that can be used for publishing, including recommendations on reporting the experimental design and statistical approaches. We also discuss how to accurately visualize the results and provide recommendations for peer reviewers to enhance rigor and transparency. Incorporating transparency practices into research manuscripts will significantly improve the reproducibility of the results by independent laboratories. SIGNIFICANCE: Failure to replicate research findings often arises from errors in the experimental design and statistical approaches. By providing a full account of the experimental design, procedures, and statistical approaches, researchers can address the reproducibility crisis and improve the sustainability of research outcomes. In this piece, we discuss the key issues leading to irreproducibility and provide general approaches to improving transparency and rigor in reporting, which could assist in making research more reproducible.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Joshua L. Plotkin
- Department of Neurobiology and BehaviorStony Brook UniversityStony BrookNew YorkUSA
| | - David L. McArthur
- Department of NeurosurgeryDavid Geffen School of Medicine at UCLALos AngelesCaliforniaUSA
| | - Anita E. Bandrowski
- Center for Research in Biological SystemsUniversity of California at San DiegoSan DiegoCaliforniaUSA
| | | | - Maryann E. Martone
- Center for Research in Biological SystemsUniversity of California at San DiegoSan DiegoCaliforniaUSA
| | - Hadley C. Bergstrom
- Department of Psychological Science, Program in Neuroscience and BehaviorVassar CollegePoughkeepsieNew YorkUSA
| | - Anton Bespalov
- Partnership for Assessment and Accreditation of Scientific PracticeHeidelbergGermany
- Valdman Institute of PharmacologyPavlov First State Medical UniversitySt. PetersburgRussia
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Gerber H, Mosser S, Boury-Jamot B, Stumpe M, Piersigilli A, Goepfert C, Dengjel J, Albrecht U, Magara F, Fraering PC. The APMAP interactome reveals new modulators of APP processing and beta-amyloid production that are altered in Alzheimer's disease. Acta Neuropathol Commun 2019; 7:13. [PMID: 30704515 PMCID: PMC6354426 DOI: 10.1186/s40478-019-0660-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/12/2018] [Accepted: 01/11/2019] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
The adipocyte plasma membrane-associated protein APMAP is expressed in the brain where it associates with γ-secretase, a protease responsible for the generation of the amyloid-β peptides (Aβ) implicated in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study, behavioral investigations revealed spatial learning and memory deficiencies in our newly generated mouse line lacking the protein APMAP. In a mouse model of AD, the constitutive deletion of APMAP worsened the spatial memory phenotype and led to increased Aβ production and deposition into senile plaques. To investigate at the molecular level the neurobiological functions of APMAP (memory and Aβ formation) and a possible link with the pathological hallmarks of AD (memory impairment and Aβ pathology), we next developed a procedure for the high-grade purification of cellular APMAP protein complexes. The biochemical characterization of these complexes revealed a series of new APMAP interactomers. Among these, the heat shock protein HSPA1A and the cation-dependent mannose-6-phosphate receptor (CD-M6PR) negatively regulated APP processing and Aβ production, while clusterin, calnexin, arginase-1, PTGFRN and the cation-independent mannose-6-phosphate receptor (CI-M6PR/IGF2R) positively regulated APP and Aβ production. Several of the newly identified APMAP interactomers contribute to the autophagy-lysosome system, further supporting an emergent agreement that this pathway can modulate APP metabolism and Aβ generation. Importantly, we have also demonstrated increased alternative splicing of APMAP and lowered levels of the Aβ controllers HSPA1A and CD-M6PR in human brains from neuropathologically verified AD cases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hermeto Gerber
- Foundation Eclosion, CH-1228, Plan-les-Ouates, Switzerland
- Campus Biotech Innovation Park, CH-1202, Geneva, Switzerland
- Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, CH-1700, Fribourg, Switzerland
| | - Sebastien Mosser
- Foundation Eclosion, CH-1228, Plan-les-Ouates, Switzerland
- Campus Biotech Innovation Park, CH-1202, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Benjamin Boury-Jamot
- Centre for Psychiatric Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospital, CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Michael Stumpe
- Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, CH-1700, Fribourg, Switzerland
| | - Alessandra Piersigilli
- Institute of Animal Pathology, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, CH-3012, Bern, Switzerland
- School of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Christine Goepfert
- Institute of Animal Pathology, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, CH-3012, Bern, Switzerland
- School of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Joern Dengjel
- Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, CH-1700, Fribourg, Switzerland
| | - Urs Albrecht
- Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, CH-1700, Fribourg, Switzerland
| | - Fulvio Magara
- Centre for Psychiatric Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospital, CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Patrick C Fraering
- Foundation Eclosion, CH-1228, Plan-les-Ouates, Switzerland.
- Campus Biotech Innovation Park, CH-1202, Geneva, Switzerland.
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Sah A, Sotnikov S, Kharitonova M, Schmuckermair C, Diepold RP, Landgraf R, Whittle N, Singewald N. Epigenetic Mechanisms Within the Cingulate Cortex Regulate Innate Anxiety-Like Behavior. Int J Neuropsychopharmacol 2019; 22:317-328. [PMID: 30668714 PMCID: PMC6441131 DOI: 10.1093/ijnp/pyz004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2018] [Revised: 01/11/2019] [Accepted: 01/14/2019] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Pathological anxiety originates from a complex interplay of genetic predisposition and environmental factors, acting via epigenetic mechanisms. Epigenetic processes that can counteract detrimental genetic risk towards innate high anxiety are not well characterized. METHODS We used female mouse lines of selectively bred high (HAB)- vs low (LAB)-innate anxiety-related behavior and performed select environmental and pharmacological manipulations to alter anxiety levels as well as brain-specific manipulations and immunohistochemistry to investigate neuronal mechanisms associated with alterations in anxiety-related behavior. RESULTS Inborn hyperanxiety of high anxiety-like phenotypes was effectively reduced by environmental enrichment exposure. c-Fos mapping revealed that hyperanxiety in high anxiety-like phenotypes was associated with blunted challenge-induced neuronal activation in the cingulate-cortex, which was normalized by environmental enrichment. Relating this finding with epigenetic modifications, we found that high anxiety-like phenotypes (compared with low-innate anxiety phenotypes) showed reduced acetylation in the hypoactivated cingulate-cortex neurons following a mild emotional challenge, which again was normalized by environmental enrichment. Paralleling the findings using environmental enrichment, systemic administration of histone-deacetylase-inhibitor MS-275 elicited an anxiolytic-like effect, which was correlated with increased acetylated-histone-3 levels within cingulate-cortex. Finally, as a proof-of-principle, local MS-275 injection into cingulate-cortex rescued enhanced innate anxiety and increased acetylated-histone-3 within the cingulate-cortex, suggesting this epigenetic mark as a biomarker for treatment success. CONCLUSIONS Taken together, the present findings provide the first causal evidence that the attenuation of high innate anxiety-like behavior via environmental/pharmacological manipulations is epigenetically mediated via acetylation changes within the cingulate-cortex. Finally, histone-3 specific histone-deacetylase-inhibitor could be of therapeutic importance in anxiety disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anupam Sah
- Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Institute of Pharmacy and Center for Molecular Biosciences Innsbruck, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
| | | | - Maria Kharitonova
- Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Institute of Pharmacy and Center for Molecular Biosciences Innsbruck, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Claudia Schmuckermair
- Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Institute of Pharmacy and Center for Molecular Biosciences Innsbruck, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
| | | | | | - Nigel Whittle
- Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Institute of Pharmacy and Center for Molecular Biosciences Innsbruck, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Nicolas Singewald
- Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Institute of Pharmacy and Center for Molecular Biosciences Innsbruck, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria,Correspondence: Nicolas Singewald, PhD, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Institute of Pharmacy and Center for Molecular Biosciences Innsbruck (CMBI), University of Innsbruck, Innrain 80–82/III, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria ()
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Prager EM, Chambers KE, Plotkin JL, McArthur DL, Bandrowski AE, Bansal N, Martone ME, Bergstrom HC, Bespalov A, Graf C. Improving transparency and scientific rigor in academic publishing. Brain Behav 2019; 9:e01141. [PMID: 30506879 PMCID: PMC6346653 DOI: 10.1002/brb3.1141] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Progress in basic and clinical research is slowed when researchers fail to provide a complete and accurate report of how a study was designed, executed, and the results analyzed. Publishing rigorous scientific research involves a full description of the methods, materials, procedures, and outcomes. Investigators may fail to provide a complete description of how their study was designed and executed because they may not know how to accurately report the information or the mechanisms are not in place to facilitate transparent reporting. Here, we provide an overview of how authors can write manuscripts in a transparent and thorough manner. We introduce a set of reporting criteria that can be used for publishing, including recommendations on reporting the experimental design and statistical approaches. We also discuss how to accurately visualize the results and provide recommendations for peer reviewers to enhance rigor and transparency. Incorporating transparency practices into research manuscripts will significantly improve the reproducibility of the results by independent laboratories.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Joshua L. Plotkin
- Department of Neurobiology and BehaviorStony Brook UniversityStony BrookNew York
| | - David L. McArthur
- Department of Neurosurgery, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLALos AngelesCalifornia
| | - Anita E. Bandrowski
- Center for Research in Biological SystemsUniversity of California at San DiegoSan DiegoCalifornia
| | | | - Maryann E. Martone
- Center for Research in Biological SystemsUniversity of California at San DiegoSan DiegoCalifornia
| | - Hadley C. Bergstrom
- Department of Psychological Science, Program in Neuroscience and BehaviorVassar CollegePoughkeepsieNew York
| | - Anton Bespalov
- Partnership for Assessment and Accreditation of Scientific PracticeHeidelbergGermany
- Valdman Institute of Pharmacology, Pavlov First State Medical UniversitySt. PetersburgRussia
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Prager EM, Chambers KE, Plotkin JL, McArthur DL, Bandrowski AE, Bansal N, Martone ME, Bergstrom HC, Bespalov A, Graf C. Improving transparency and scientific rigor in academic publishing. J Neurosci Res 2018; 97:377-390. [PMID: 30506706 DOI: 10.1002/jnr.24340] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
Progress in basic and clinical research is slowed when researchers fail to provide a complete and accurate report of how a study was designed, executed, and the results analyzed. Publishing rigorous scientific research involves a full description of the methods, materials, procedures, and outcomes. Investigators may fail to provide a complete description of how their study was designed and executed because they may not know how to accurately report the information or the mechanisms are not in place to facilitate transparent reporting. Here, we provide an overview of how authors can write manuscripts in a transparent and thorough manner. We introduce a set of reporting criteria that can be used for publishing, including recommendations on reporting the experimental design and statistical approaches. We also discuss how to accurately visualize the results and provide recommendations for peer reviewers to enhance rigor and transparency. Incorporating transparency practices into research manuscripts will significantly improve the reproducibility of the results by independent laboratories.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Joshua L Plotkin
- Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York
| | - David L McArthur
- Department of Neurosurgery, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California
| | - Anita E Bandrowski
- Center for Research in Biological Systems, University of California at San Diego, San Diego, California
| | | | - Maryann E Martone
- Center for Research in Biological Systems, University of California at San Diego, San Diego, California
| | - Hadley C Bergstrom
- Department of Psychological Science, Program in Neuroscience and Behavior, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York
| | - Anton Bespalov
- Partnership for Assessment and Accreditation of Scientific Practice, Heidelberg, Germany.,Valdman Institute of Pharmacology, Pavlov First State Medical University, St. Petersburg, Russia
| | - Chris Graf
- John Wiley & Sons, Oxford, United Kingdom
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41
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Buckley MG, Bast T. A new human delayed-matching-to-place test in a virtual environment reverse-translated from the rodent watermaze paradigm: Characterization of performance measures and sex differences. Hippocampus 2018; 28:796-812. [PMID: 30451330 DOI: 10.1002/hipo.22992] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2017] [Revised: 03/14/2018] [Accepted: 05/27/2018] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Watermaze tests of place learning and memory in rodents and corresponding reverse-translated human paradigms in real or virtual environments are key tools to study hippocampal function. In common variants, the animal or human participant has to find a hidden goal that remains in the same place over many trials, allowing for incremental learning of the place with reference to distal cues surrounding the circular, featureless maze. Although the hippocampus is involved in incremental place learning, rodent studies have shown that the delayed-matching-to-place (DMP) watermaze test is a more sensitive assay of hippocampal function. On the DMP test, the goal location changes every four trials, requiring the rapid updating of place memory. Here, we developed a virtual DMP test reverse-translated from the rat watermaze DMP paradigm. In two replications, participants showed 1-trial place learning, evidenced by marked latency and path length savings between Trials 1 and 2 to the same goal location, and by search preference for the vicinity of the goal when Trial 2 was run as probe trial (during which the goal was removed). The performance was remarkably similar to rats' performance on the watermaze DMP test. In both replications, male participants showed greater savings and search preferences compared to female participants. Male participants also showed better mental rotation performance, although mental rotation scores did not consistently correlate with DMP performance measures, pointing to distinct neurocognitive mechanisms. The remarkable similarity between rodent and human DMP performance suggests similar underlying neuro-psychological mechanisms, including hippocampus dependence. The new virtual DMP test may, therefore, provide a sensitive tool to probe human hippocampal function.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Tobias Bast
- School of Psychology and Neuroscience@Nottingham, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom
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42
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Sturman O, Germain PL, Bohacek J. Exploratory rearing: a context- and stress-sensitive behavior recorded in the open-field test. Stress 2018; 21:443-452. [PMID: 29451062 DOI: 10.1080/10253890.2018.1438405] [Citation(s) in RCA: 243] [Impact Index Per Article: 40.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Stressful experiences are linked to anxiety disorders in humans. Similar effects are observed in rodent models, where anxiety is often measured in classic conflict tests such as the open-field test. Spontaneous rearing behavior, in which rodents stand on their hind legs to explore, can also be observed in this test yet is often ignored. We define two forms of rearing, supported rearing (in which the animal rears against the walls of the arena) and unsupported rearing (in which the animal rears without contacting the walls of the arena). Using an automated open-field test, we show that both rearing behaviors appear to be strongly context dependent and show clear sex differences, with females rearing less than males. We show that unsupported rearing is sensitive to acute stress, and is reduced under more averse testing conditions. Repeated testing and handling procedures lead to changes in several parameters over varying test sessions, yet unsupported rearing appears to be rather stable within a given animal. Rearing behaviors could therefore provide an additional measure of anxiety in rodents relevant for behavioral studies, as they appear to be highly sensitive to context and may be used in repeated testing designs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Oliver Sturman
- a Department of Health Sciences and Technology, Lab of Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience , ETH Zurich , Zurich , Switzerland
| | - Pierre-Luc Germain
- b Brain Research Institute , University of Zurich , Zurich , Switzerland
| | - Johannes Bohacek
- a Department of Health Sciences and Technology, Lab of Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience , ETH Zurich , Zurich , Switzerland
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Stieglitz MS, Fenske S, Hammelmann V, Becirovic E, Schöttle V, Delorme JE, Schöll-Weidinger M, Mader R, Deussing J, Wolfer DP, Seeliger MW, Albrecht U, Wotjak CT, Biel M, Michalakis S, Wahl-Schott C. Disturbed Processing of Contextual Information in HCN3 Channel Deficient Mice. Front Mol Neurosci 2018; 10:436. [PMID: 29375299 PMCID: PMC5767300 DOI: 10.3389/fnmol.2017.00436] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2017] [Accepted: 12/18/2017] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated channels (HCNs) in the nervous system are implicated in a variety of neuronal functions including learning and memory, regulation of vigilance states and pain. Dysfunctions or genetic loss of these channels have been shown to cause human diseases such as epilepsy, depression, schizophrenia, and Parkinson's disease. The physiological functions of HCN1 and HCN2 channels in the nervous system have been analyzed using genetic knockout mouse models. By contrast, there are no such genetic studies for HCN3 channels so far. Here, we use a HCN3-deficient (HCN3−/−) mouse line, which has been previously generated in our group to examine the expression and function of this channel in the CNS. Specifically, we investigate the role of HCN3 channels for the regulation of circadian rhythm and for the determination of behavior. Contrary to previous suggestions we find that HCN3−/− mice show normal visual, photic, and non-photic circadian function. In addition, HCN3−/− mice are impaired in processing contextual information, which is characterized by attenuated long-term extinction of contextual fear and increased fear to a neutral context upon repeated exposure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marc S Stieglitz
- Center for Integrated Protein Science and Center for Drug Research, Department of Pharmacy, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany
| | - Stefanie Fenske
- Center for Integrated Protein Science and Center for Drug Research, Department of Pharmacy, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany
| | - Verena Hammelmann
- Center for Integrated Protein Science and Center for Drug Research, Department of Pharmacy, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany
| | - Elvir Becirovic
- Center for Integrated Protein Science and Center for Drug Research, Department of Pharmacy, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany
| | - Verena Schöttle
- Center for Integrated Protein Science and Center for Drug Research, Department of Pharmacy, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany
| | - James E Delorme
- Neurobiochemistry of Circadian Rhythms, Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
| | - Martha Schöll-Weidinger
- Center for Integrated Protein Science and Center for Drug Research, Department of Pharmacy, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany
| | - Robert Mader
- Center for Integrated Protein Science and Center for Drug Research, Department of Pharmacy, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany
| | - Jan Deussing
- Department of Stress Neurobiology and Neurogenetics, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich, Germany
| | - David P Wolfer
- Institute of Anatomy, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.,Department of Health Sciences and Technology, Institute of Human Movement Sciences and Sport, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.,Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Mathias W Seeliger
- Ocular Neurodegeneration Research Group, Centre for Ophthalmology, Institute for Ophthalmic Research, Eberhard Karls University Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany
| | - Urs Albrecht
- Neurobiochemistry of Circadian Rhythms, Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
| | - Carsten T Wotjak
- Department of Stress Neurobiology and Neurogenetics, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich, Germany
| | - Martin Biel
- Center for Integrated Protein Science and Center for Drug Research, Department of Pharmacy, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany
| | - Stylianos Michalakis
- Center for Integrated Protein Science and Center for Drug Research, Department of Pharmacy, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany
| | - Christian Wahl-Schott
- Center for Integrated Protein Science and Center for Drug Research, Department of Pharmacy, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany
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Fritz AK, Amrein I, Wolfer DP. Similar reliability and equivalent performance of female and male mice in the open field and water-maze place navigation task. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF MEDICAL GENETICS PART C-SEMINARS IN MEDICAL GENETICS 2017; 175:380-391. [PMID: 28654717 PMCID: PMC5638061 DOI: 10.1002/ajmg.c.31565] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2017] [Revised: 04/27/2017] [Accepted: 05/10/2017] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
Although most nervous system diseases affect women and men differentially, most behavioral studies using mouse models do not include subjects of both sexes. Many researchers worry that data of female mice may be unreliable due to the estrous cycle. Here, we retrospectively evaluated sex effects on coefficient of variation (CV) in 5,311 mice which had performed the same place navigation protocol in the water‐maze and in 4,554 mice tested in the same open field arena. Confidence intervals for Cohen's d as measure of effect size were computed and tested for equivalence with 0.2 as equivalence margin. Despite the large sample size, only few behavioral parameters showed a significant sex effect on CV. Confidence intervals of effect size indicated that CV was either equivalent or showed a small sex difference at most, accounting for less than 2% of total group to group variation of CV. While female mice were potentially slightly more variable in water‐maze acquisition and in the open field, males tended to perform less reliably in the water‐maze probe trial. In addition to evaluating variability, we also directly compared mean performance of female and male mice and found them to be equivalent in both water‐maze place navigation and open field exploration. Our data confirm and extend other large scale studies in demonstrating that including female mice in experiments does not cause a relevant increase of data variability. Our results make a strong case for including mice of both sexes whenever open field or water‐maze are used in preclinical research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ann-Kristina Fritz
- Institute of Anatomy, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.,Institute of Human Movement Sciences and Sport, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Irmgard Amrein
- Institute of Anatomy, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.,Institute of Human Movement Sciences and Sport, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - David P Wolfer
- Institute of Anatomy, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.,Institute of Human Movement Sciences and Sport, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
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