Brief Communication
α-Synuclein transgenic mice exhibit reduced anxiety-like behaviour

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.expneurol.2007.12.017Get rights and content

Abstract

Up to 40% of Parkinson's disease patients suffer from anxiety, but little is known about the mechanisms involved. We used the elevated plus maze and open field test to evaluate groups of young adult mice expressing different levels of α-synuclein, including mice transgenic for human α-synuclein with the A53T mutation. Compared to α-synuclein knock-out mice and wild-type controls, α-synuclein A53T transgenic mice exhibited reduced anxiety-like behaviour by spending markedly greater amounts of time on the maze open arms and by a higher proportion of entries to the open arms. In the open field, transgenic mice showed a trend towards reduced locomotor habituation and increased thigmotaxis. These results indicate a possible role for α-synuclein in anxiety-like behaviours.

Section snippets

Acknowledgments

The authors thank V.M. Lee and J. Q. Trojanowski for the transgenic mice and are grateful to T. Iwatsubo for the gift of antibody. These studies were supported by a grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia and the Percy Baxter Charitable Trust.

References (28)

  • ThielC.M. et al.

    High versus low reactivity to a novel environment: behavioural, pharmacological and neurochemical assessments

    Neuroscience

    (1999)
  • UngerE.L. et al.

    Locomotor hyperactivity and alterations in dopamine neurotransmission are associated with overexpression of A53T mutant human a-synuclein in mice

    Neurobiol. Dis.

    (2006)
  • BabaM. et al.

    Aggregation of alpha-synuclein in Lewy bodies of sporadic Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies

    Am. J. Pathol.

    (1998)
  • JeannotteA.M. et al.

    Regulation of the norepinephrine transporter by alpha-synuclein-mediated interactions with microtubules

    Eur. J. Neurosci.

    (2007)
  • Cited by (0)

    View full text