Analysis Tools
behavior/neurological
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• mutants exhibit an aberrant pattern of exploration in a novel environment, showing increased time in the open arms of the elevated plus maze
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• mutants exhibit a higher error rate in the acquisition of a spatial learning task in the Barnes maze
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• magnitude of the acoustic startle response is reduced 86% in mutants compared to wild-type mice and the reaction time to the acoustic startle is delayed across all sound levels by an average of 40%
• however, prepulse inhibition levels are not affected, suggesting that sensory gating and auditory function are not impaired
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• mice show a severe motor impairment on the rotarod, with reduced latency to fall times and no improvement with retesting
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• mutants take smaller steps in gait testing, showing an 8-16% reduction in stride length, however show no differences in overlap, front paw stride length or front paw and hind paw base width
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endocrine/exocrine glands
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• 38% decrease in testes weight
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homeostasis/metabolism
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• follicle stimulating hormone levels are reduced more than 50% compared to wild-type mice, irrespective of sex
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nervous system
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• cellular loss throughout the various lobes of the cerebellum, with especially noticeable degeneration in the Purkinje cell layer
• cerebellar regions that do contain intact Purkinje cells exhibit severe dendritic swelling
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• 3-fold increase in the number of pyknotic nuclei in the Purkinje cell layer compared to wild-type
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• cerebellar regions that do contain intact Purkinje cells exhibit severe dendritic swelling
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reproductive system
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• 38% decrease in testes weight
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• breeding pairs are unable to successfully mate
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