Comparative Studies on Behavioral, Cognitive and Biomolecular Profiling of ICR, C57BL/6 and Its Sub-Strains Suitable for Scopolamine-Induced Amnesic Models

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences Vol. 18; no. 8; p. 1735
• Main Authors: Karthivashan, Govindarajan, Park, Shin-Young, Kim, Joon-Soo, Cho, Duk-Yeon, Ganesan, Palanivel, Choi, Dong-Kug
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 09.08.2017; MDPI
• Subjects: Acetylcholinesterase; Acetylcholinesterase - metabolism; Adjuvants, Anesthesia - adverse effects; Amnesia; Amnesia - etiology; Amnesia - metabolism; Amnesia - psychology; Animal models; Animals; Antioxidants; Antioxidants - metabolism; Behavior, Animal; Biomarkers; Brain-derived neurotrophic factor; Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor - metabolism; C57BL/6J sub-strains; C57BL/6N; Cerebral Cortex - metabolism; cognition; Cognitive Dysfunction; Comparative studies; CREB/BDNF; Cyclic AMP response element-binding protein; Cyclic AMP Response Element-Binding Protein - metabolism; Enzyme Activation; Gene Expression; Hippocampus - metabolism; Impairment; inbred C57BL/6 strains; Inbreeding; Inflammation; Inflammation - genetics; Inflammation - metabolism; Latency; Lipid Peroxidation; Male; Memory Disorders - etiology; Memory Disorders - psychology; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Mice, Inbred ICR; Molecular biology; outbred ICR strains; Protein expression; Protein folding; Proteins; Rodents; Scopolamine; Scopolamine - adverse effects; Spatial Learning; Species Specificity; Spontaneous alternation; Tacrine; C57BL/6N; CREB/BDNF; amnesia; cognition; inbred C57BL/6 strains; outbred ICR strains; C57BL/6J sub-strains; scopolamine
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms18081735

Cognitive impairment and behavioral disparities are the distinctive baseline features to investigate in most animal models of neurodegenerative disease. However, neuronal complications are multifactorial and demand a suitable animal model to investigate their underlying basal mechanisms. By contrast, the numerous existing neurodegenerative studies have utilized various animal strains, leading to factual disparity. Choosing an optimal mouse strain for preliminary assessment of neuronal complications is therefore imperative. In this study, we systematically compared the behavioral, cognitive, cholinergic, and inflammatory impairments of outbred ICR and inbred C57BL/6 mice strains subject to scopolamine-induced amnesia. We then extended this study to the sub-strains C57BL/6N and C57BL/6J, where in addition to the above-mentioned parameters, their endogenous antioxidant levels and cAMP response-element binding protein (CREB)/brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) protein expression were also evaluated. Compared with the ICR strain, the scopolamine-inflicted C57BL/6 strains exhibited a substantial reduction of spontaneous alternation and an approximately two-fold increase in inflammatory protein expression, compared to the control group. Among the sub-strains, scopolamine-treated C57BL/6N strains exhibited declined step-through latency, elevated acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity and inflammatory protein expression, associated with reduced endogenous antioxidant levels and p-CREB/BDNF expression, compared to the control and tacrine-treated groups. This indicates that the C57BL/6N strains exhibit significantly enhanced scopolamine-induced neuronal impairment compared to the other evaluated strains.