Progressive deterioration of reaction time performance and choreiform symptoms in a new Huntington's disease transgenic ratmodel

C. Cao, Y. Temel*, A. Blokland, H. Ozen, H.W.M. Steinbusch, R. Vlamings, H.P. Nguyen, S. von Horsten, C. Schmitz, V. Visser-Vandewalle

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

We tested the hypothesis that a recently developed transgenic rat model of Huntington's disease (tgHD rats) showed an age-and genotype-dependent change in psychomotor performance and in the frequency of choreiform movements similar to HD patients. Wild type and tgHD (homozygotic and heterozygotic) rats were behaviorally tested at an age of 15 and 20 months. Our results show that tgHD rats exhibit an age-, and genotype-dependent deterioration of the psychomotor performance and choreiform, symptoms, closely mimicking the clinical time course changes of psychomotor symptoms of HD patients. These data provide further experimental evidence that the tgHD rat can be considered as a relevant animal model of HD.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)257-261
JournalBehavioural Brain Research
Volume170
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2006

Cite this