Biomarker-based human and animal sperm phenotyping: the good, the bad and the ugly.

Conventional, brightfield-microscopic semen analysis provides important baseline information about sperm quality of an individual; however, it falls short of identifying subtle subcellular and molecular defects in cohorts of "bad", defective human and animal spermatozoa with seemingly normal phenotypes. To bridge this gap, it is desirable to increase the precision of andrological evaluation in humans and livestock animals by pursuing advanced biomarker-based imaging methods. This review, spiced up with occasional classic movie references but seriously scholastic at the same time, focuses mainly on the biomarkers of altered male germ cell proteostasis resulting in post-testicular carryovers of proteins associated with ubiquitin-proteasome system. Also addressed are sperm redox homeostasis, epididymal sperm maturation, sperm-seminal plasma interactions and sperm surface glycosylation. Zinc ion homeostasis-associated biomarkers and sperm-borne components, including the elements of neurodegenerative pathways such as Huntington's and Alzheimer's disease, are discussed. Such spectrum of biomarkers, imaged by highly specific vital fluorescent molecular probes, lectins, and antibodies, reveals both obvious and subtle defects of sperm chromatin, DNA and accessory structures of the sperm head and tail. Introduction of next generation image-based flow cytometry into research and clinical andrology will soon enable the incorporation of machine and deep learning algorithms with the end point of developing simple, label-free methods for clinical diagnostics and high throughput phenotyping of spermatozoa in humans and economically important livestock animals.

An impedance based microfluidic sensor for evaluation of individual red blood cell solute permeability.

-In this paper, we investigate a microfluidic based sensing device for cell membrane permeability measurements in real time with applications in rapid assessment of red blood cell (RBC) quality at the individual cell level. The microfluidic chip was designed with unique abilities to line up the RBCs in the centerline of the microchannel using positive dielectrophoresis (p-DEP) forces, rapid mixing of RBCs with various media (e.g. containing permeating or nonpermeating solutes) injected from different inlets to achieve high mixing efficiency. The chip detects the impedance values of the RBCs within 0.19 s from the start of mixing with other media, at ten electrodes along the length of the channel and enables time series measurements of volume change of individual cell caused by cell osmosis in anisosmotic fluids over a 0.8 s postmixing timespan. This technique enables estimating water permeability of individual cell accurately. Here we first present confirmation of a linear voltage-diameter relationship in polystyrene bead standards. Next, we show that under equilibrium conditions, the voltage-volume relationship in rat red blood cells (RBCs) is linear, corresponding to previously published Boyle van 't Hoff plots. Using rat cells as a model for human, we present the first measurement of water permeability in individual red blood cells and confirm that these data align with previously published population level values for human RBC. Finally, we present preliminary evidence for possible application of our device to identify individual RBCs infected with Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasites. Future developments using this device will address the use of whole blood with non-homogenous cell populations, a task currently performed by clinical Coulter counters.

Effects of CO2 Euthanasia of C57BL/6 Mice on Sperm Motility, In Vitro Fertilization, and Embryonic Developmental Competence.

Cryopreservation of epididymal sperm collected after euthanasia is a common method to preserve and distribute valuable mouse models worldwide. However, the euthanasia method used prior to sperm collection must not adversely affect sperm quality. The most common method of euthanasia in mice is CO2 asphyxiation, but its effect on the quality of sperm collected postmortem is largely unknown. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of CO2 euthanasia of C57BL/6 mice on both freshly recovered sperm and sperm subjected to freezing and thawing. First, sperm concentration, progressive motility, curvilineal velocity (VCL), average path velocity (VAP), and progressive velocity (VSL) were analyzed for mice euthanized by cervical dislocation (CD), high flow CO2 (100%), or low flow CO2 (30%) displacement/minute, respectively. Then, in-vitro fertilization and embryonic development rates were determined using frozen-thawed sperm from each euthanasia method. Neither fresh nor frozen-thawed sperm showed significant differences in sperm concentration, progressive motility, VAP, or VCL when compared to CD and CO2 groups. However, frozen-thawed sperm collected from CD mice had higher VCL values than did those collected from the low flow mice (P = 0.039). VCL was not different in fresh or frozen-thawed sperm collected after mouse euthanasia by CD as compared with high flow CO2 or by high flow as compared with low flow CO2. Frozen-thawed sperm showed no differences among the 3 euthanasia groups for fertilization (P = 0.452) or blastocyst development rates (P = 0.298). The results indicate that CO2 euthanasia can be used as an alternative to CD to obtain optimal quality mouse sperm for cryopreservation while remaining compliant with welfare requirements.

Microglial Inflammation and Cognitive Dysfunction in Comorbid Rat Models of Striatal Ischemic Stroke and Alzheimer's Disease: Effects of Antioxidant Catalase-SKL on Behavioral and Cellular Pathology.

Ischemic stroke often co-occurs with Alzheimer's disease (AD) leading to a worsened clinical outcome. Neuroinflammation is a critical process implicated in AD and ischemic pathology, associated with cognitive decline. We sought to investigate the combined effects of ischemic stroke induced by endothelin-1 injection in two AD rat models, using motor function, memory and microglial inflammation in the basal forebrain and striatum as readouts. In addition, we sought to determine the effectiveness of the antioxidant biologic CAT-SKL in one of the models. The early AD model employed the bilateral intracerebroventricular injections of the toxic ß-amyloid peptide Aß25-35, the prodromal AD model used the transgenic Fischer 344 rat overexpressing a pathological mutant human amyloid precursor protein. Motor function was assessed using a cylinder, modified sticky tape and beam-walk tasks; learning and memory were tested in the Morris water maze. Microglial activation was examined using immunohistochemistry. Aß25-35 toxicity and stroke combination greatly increased microglial inflammation in the basal forebrain. Prodromal AD-pathology coupled with ischemia in the transgenic rat resulted in a greater microgliosis in the striatum. Combined transgenic rats showed balance alterations, comorbid Aß25-35 rats showed a transient sensorimotor deficit, and both demonstrated spatial reference memory deficit. CAT-SKL treatment ameliorated memory impairment and basal forebrain microgliosis in Aß25-35 rats with stroke. Our results suggest that neuroinflammation could be one of the early processes underlying the interaction of AD with stroke and contributing to the cognitive impairment, and that therapies such as antioxidant CAT-SKL could be a potential therapeutic strategy.

Precocious White Matter Inflammation and Behavioural Inflexibility Precede Learning and Memory Impairment in the TgAPP21 Rat Model of Alzheimer Disease.

Neuroinflammation and behavioural inflexibility are both common in late adulthood but far more profound in Alzheimer disease (AD). To investigate the relationship between ageing, AD, neuroinflammation, and behavioural flexibility, male wild-type Fischer 344 (Wt) and the transgenic APP21 (TgAPP21) rats were aged to 4, 8, 13, and 22 months and evaluated for neuroinflammation and cognitive impairment. TgAPP21 rats overexpress a pathogenic variant of the human amyloid precursor protein (hAPP; Swedish and Indiana mutations) but do not spontaneously develop overt pathology related to AD. In both genotypes, learning and memory were similarly impaired in older rats. However, at 8 months of age, TgAPP21 rats demonstrated behavioural inflexibility in set shifting, reversal, and the Morris water maze, while Wt rats showed inflexibility at 13 and 22 months of age. This early inflexibility in TgAPP21 rats was accompanied by a precocious increase in microglia activation within the corpus callosum; 8- and 13-month-old TgAPP21 rats had similar levels of microglia activation as 13- and 22-month-old Wt rats, respectively. However, while neuroinflammation within the white matter continued to progress with age, behavioural inflexibility peaked in 8-month-old TgAPP21 rats; in older TgAPP21 rats, memory and learning impairments masked inflexibility. These findings suggest that the behavioural inflexibility and white matter inflammation seen in normal ageing are accelerated in AD and may precede impairments of learning and memory.

Cryopreservation of Mouse Sperm for Genome Banking.

Germplasm cryobanking of transgenic rodent models is a valuable tool for protecting important genotypes from genetic drift, genetic contamination, and loss of breeding colonies due to disease or catastrophic disasters to the housing facilities as well as avoiding stress associated with domestic and international live animal shipment. Furthermore, cryopreservation of germplasm enhances management efficiencies by saving animal room space, reducing workload for staff, reducing cost of maintaining live animals, reducing the number of animals used to maintain a breeding colony, and facilitating transportation of genetics by allowing distribution of frozen germplasm rather than live animals which also reduces the risk of transfer of pathogens between facilities. Thus, effective long-term preservation methods of mouse spermatozoa are critical for future reconstitution of scientifically important mouse strains used for biomedical research.

Cryopreservation and Transplantation of Laboratory Rodent Ovarian Tissue for Genome Banking and Biomedical Research.

Genetic modifications in combination with highly sophisticated assisted reproductive technologies such as in vitro oocyte maturation and development, in vitro fertilization, intracytoplasmic sperm injection, and in vitro embryo culture have opened many research avenues and treatment options for both animals and humans. The number of genetically modified (GM) rodent strains increased considerably during the last several decades, and their numbers are expected to increase due to efficient gene editing technologies including the CRISPR/Cas9. Rodent ovarian tissues (OT) cryopreservation and transplantation procedures have several applications in biomedical field: they provide a fertility restoration option for GM rodent strains in some circumstances. They also serve as models to investigate OT cryopreservation as potential alternatives for human infertility patients as well as other domestic and wildlife species for the development of improved cryopreservation and subsequent transplantation strategies. The modeling studies enable determining effective cryoprotective agents (CPA), CPA and water permeability kinetics, and cooling and warming rates during the development of OT cryopreservation procedures. Furthermore, rodent models are extremely useful for determining post-thaw OT graft sites as well as potential medical interventions in an effort to expedite angiogenesis and inhibit inflammatory/immune response, OT longevity, and follicular integrity. Here we describe methodologies for rodent OT cryopreservation and potential transplantation sites for frozen-thawed rat and mouse OT.

Hypertension and Pathogenic hAPP Independently Induce White Matter Astrocytosis and Cognitive Impairment in the Rat.

Hypertension is recognized as a risk factor for Alzheimer disease, but the causal link remains undetermined. Although astrocytes and microglia play an important role in maintaining the neurovascular unit, astrocytes and microglia have been understudied in comorbid models of hypertension and Alzheimer disease. In this study, male transgenic Fischer 344 rats (TgAPP21) overexpressing a pathogenic human amyloid precursor protein received 8 weeks of Angiotensin II infusion to increase blood pressure, and the rats were evaluated for astrocytosis, microgliosis, and cognitive function. A linear relationship between astrocytosis and blood pressure was observed in the corpus callosum and cingulum of wildtype rats, with hypertensive wildtype rats matching the elevated baseline astrocytosis seen in normotensive transgenic rats. In contrast, hypertensive transgenic rats did not demonstrate a further increase of astrocytosis, suggesting a deficient response. Angiotensin II infusion did not affect activation of microglia, which were elevated in the white matter and hippocampus of transgenic rats. Angiotensin II infusion did impair both wildtype and transgenic rats' executive functions in the Morris Water Maze. These results present important implications for the interaction between hypertension and pathogenic human amyloid precursor protein expression, as Angiotensin II infusion produced cognitive impairments in both genotypes, but transgenic rats were additionally impaired in developing a normal astrocytic response to elevated blood pressure.

Morphometric, subcellular, in vitro fertilisation and embryonic developmental assessment of mouse oocytes produced by anti-inhibin serum or pregnant mare serum gonadotrophin superovulation.

This study compared the morphometric, subcellular characteristics, in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and embryonic developmental potential of metaphase II (MII) mouse oocytes obtained from females superovulated with either anti-inhibin serum-human chorionic gonadotrophin (AIS-hCG) or pregnant mare serum gonadotrophin (PMSG)-hCG. The oocyte's quantity, quality, zona pellucida (ZP) thickness, perivitelline space (PVS), diameter, microtubules, F-actin, cortical granules (CGs) and mitochondrial distribution were determined. Superovulation using AIS-hCG resulted in a higher numbers of oocyte/donor compared with PMSG-hCG (P=0.002). There was no difference in morphologically normal and abnormal oocytes between AIS-hCG and PMSG-hCG (P=0.425 and P=0.194, respectively). The morphometric measurements showed no difference in oocyte diameter between AIS-hCG and PMSG-hCG (P=0.289). However, the thickness of the ZP of oocytes from AIS-hCG females was decreased compared with PMSG-hCG (P<0.001). The PVS of oocytes from the AIS-hCG was larger than with PMSG-hCG (P<0.001). The microtubules of oocytes from both AIS-hCG and PMSG-hCG were normal, although there was an increased fluorescence intensity in the AIS-hCG oocytes (P<0.001). The F-actin and CGs distribution in oocytes from both AIS-hCG and PMSG-hCG were similar (P=0.330 and P=0.13, respectively). Although the oocytes from PMSG-hCG females had homogenously distributed mitochondria, AIS-hCG oocytes showed more peripheral distribution with no differences in fluorescence intensity (P=0.137). The blastocyst development rates after IVF with fresh sperm showed no difference between AIS-hCG and PMSG-hCG (P=0.235). These data suggested that AIS-hCG superovulation produces high numbers of morphologically normal oocytes that also possess normal subcellular structures, good morphological characteristics and had high invitro embryonic developmental potential.

White matter inflammation and cognitive function in a co-morbid metabolic syndrome and prodromal Alzheimer's disease rat model.

BACKGROUND: Metabolic syndrome, the development of which is associated with high-caloric Western diet (HCD) intake, represent a risk factor for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia including Alzheimer's disease (AD) later in life. This study aimed to investigate the effect of diet-induced metabolic disturbances on white matter neuroinflammation and cognitive function in a transgenic (TG) Fischer 344 rat carrying a human ß-amyloid precursor protein (APP) gene with Swedish and Indiana mutations (APP21 TG), a model of pre-AD and MCI. METHODS: TG and wildtype (WT) rats received either a HCD with 40% kJ from fat supplemented with 20% corn syrup drink or a standard diet for 12 weeks. Body weight, caloric intake, and blood pressure were measured repeatedly. End-point changes in glucose and lipid metabolism were also assessed. Open field task was used for assessment of activity; Morris water maze was used to assess spatial learning and memory. Cerebral white matter microglia and astrocytes, hippocampal neurons, and neuronal synapses were examined using immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: Rats maintained on the HCD developed significant obesity, visceral adiposity, dyslipidemia, and hyperinsulinemia, but did not become hypertensive. Impaired glucose tolerance was observed only in WT rats on the HCD. Total microglia number, activated OX-6+ microglia, as well as GFAP+ astrocytes located predominantly in the white matter were greater in the APP21 TG rat model in comparison to WT rats. HCD-driven metabolic perturbations further exacerbated white matter microgliosis and microglia cell activation in the APP21 TG rats and led to detectable changes in spatial reference memory in the comorbid prodromal AD and metabolic syndrome group compared to WT control rats. Neuronal density in the CA1 subregion of the hippocampus was not different between the experimental groups. Synaptic density in the CA1 and CA3 hippocampal subregions was lower in the TG rats compared to WT rats; however, there was no additional effect of the co-morbidity on this measure. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that white matter neuroinflammation might be one of the possible processes of early interaction of metabolic syndrome with MCI and pre-AD and could be one of the early brain pathologies contributing to cognitive deficits observed in mild cognitive impairment and dementia, including AD cases.

Ovariectomy Influences Cognition and Markers of Alzheimer's Disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the most devastating and costly diseases, and prevalence of AD increases with age. Furthermore, females are twice as likely to suffer from AD compared to males. The cessation of reproductive steroid hormone production during menopause is hypothesized to cause this difference. Two rodent AD models, APP21 and APP+PS1, and wild type (WT) rats underwent an ovariectomy or sham surgery. Changes in learning and memory, brain histology, amyloid-ß (Aß) deposition, levels of mRNAs involved in Aß production and clearance, and synaptic and cognitive function were determined. Barnes maze results showed that regardless of ovariectomy status, APP+PS1 rats learned slower and had poor memory retention. Ovariectomy caused learning impairment only in the APP21 rats. High levels of Aß42 and very low levels of Aß40 were observed in the brain cortices of APP+PS1 rats indicating limited endogenous PS1. The APP+PS1 rats had 43-fold greater formic acid soluble Aß42 than Aß40 at 17 months. Furthermore, levels of formic acid soluble Aß42 increased 57-fold in ovariectomized APP+PS1 rats between 12 and 17 months of age. The mRNA encoding Grin1 significantly decreased due to ovariectomy whereas levels of Bace1, Chat, and Prkcb all decreased with age. The expression levels of mRNAs involved in Aß degradation and AßPP cleavage (Neprilysin, Ide, Adam9, and Psenen) were found to be highly correlated with each other as well as hippocampal Aß deposition. Taken together, these results indicate that both ovariectomy and genotype influence AD markers in a complex manner.

In Vitro Culture of Rat Preimplantation Embryos.

The rat is one the most widely used laboratory animal species in many aspects of biomedical research, including the production of genetically engineered animal models to study human diseases and conditions. In addition to in vitro fertilization (IVF), the ability to grow IVF-derived or in vivo-collected zygotes to a desired preimplantation stage (zygote to blastocyst) entirely in vitro has a great importance for studies of developmental biology and genetic modification of laboratory rats for biomedical research. Although embryo biotechnologies are required to study or manipulate the genome effectively, such technologies for rat preimplantation embryos are not currently as successful as they are in the mouse. Here we provide a brief history of the development of rat in vitro culture systems and a step-by-step protocol to produce rat blastocyst stage embryos from zygotes under in vitro conditions from commonly used laboratory rat strains in biomedical research.

Euthanasia via CO2 inhalation causes premature cortical granule exocytosis in mouse oocytes and influences in vitro fertilization and embryo development.

Generation of high quality mouse metaphase II oocytes is an integral part for efficient in vitro fertilization (IVF), and subsequent embryo production for reproductive studies and genome banking. The main objectives of this study were to investigate the impact of various euthanasia methods on IVF, embryo development, and subcellular structures of MII mouse oocytes. Following superovulation regimen, female mice were euthanized by high flow CO2 (H CO2 ), low flow CO2 (L CO2 ), or cervical dislocation (CD). The MII oocytes obtained from these mice were evaluated for subcellular integrity by assessing their cortical granules and F-actin. Furthermore, fertilization and subsequent embryonic development competence up to blastocyst stage were also evaluated in vitro. The oocytes collected from females euthanized by CD resulted in significantly higher two-cell development rates (p = 0.028) and subsequently lead to in higher embryo development rates (p = 0.027) compared with oocytes from females euthanized by L CO2 . The cortical granule integrity analysis revealed significantly higher rate of premature cortical granules exocytosis (PCGE) for L CO2 group compared with CD and H CO2 groups (p < 0.001). These data collectively suggest that CO2 associated PCGE during euthanasia procedure is the main cause of decreased IVF rates and CD is the optimal euthanasia method for the purpose of obtaining good quality MII oocytes for mouse IVF and other reproductive studies.

Impaired behavioural flexibility related to white matter microgliosis in the TgAPP21 rat model of Alzheimer disease.

Executive dysfunction and white matter inflammation continue to be relatively understudied in rodent models of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Behavioural inflexibility is an important component of executive dysfunction that can be further categorized as perseverative or regressive, which respectively specify whether maladaptive persistence occurs early or late during a behavioural change. Previous studies of the TgAPP21 rat model of AD (expressing pathogenic hAPP) suggested a potentially spontaneous increase of regressive behavioral inflexibility. In this study, 7-8-month-old male TgAPP21 rats were tested for behavioral flexibility, learning, and memory using an operant conditioning chamber and the Morris Water Maze (MWM). TgAPP21 rats demonstrated a regressive behavioral inflexibility during set shifting in an operant conditioning chamber (regressive errors η2 = 0.32 and number of errors after criterion η2 = 0.33). Regressive behavior was also demonstrated in the MWM probe test, wherein TgAPP21 rats significantly increased their swim time in the target quadrant during the last third of the probe test (43% vs 33% in the first 2 thirds of the probe test or the Wt rats' 29%-32%); this behavioral phenotype has not been previously described in the MWM. TgAPP21 demonstrated further impairment of behavioural inflexibility as they committed a greater number of reversal errors in the operant conditioning chamber (η2 = 0.30). Diffuse microglia activation was increased in the white matter tracts of TgAPP21 (corpus callosum, cingulum, and internal capsule; η2 = 0.59-0.62), which was found to correlate with the number of reversal errors in the operant conditioning chamber (R2 = 0.42). As TgAPP21 rats do not spontaneously develop amyloid plaques but have been shown in previous studies to be vulnerable to the development of plaques, these rats demonstrate an important onset of cognitive change and inflammation in the pre-plaque phase of AD. TgAPP21 rats are also an instrumental model for studying the role and mechanism of white matter microglial activation in executive functioning. This is pertinent to clinical research of prodromal AD which has suggested that white matter inflammation may underlie impairment of executive functions such as behavioral flexibility.

Boron enhances early embryonic gene expressions and improves fetal development of rats.

Boron is present as several different components in nature. Besides its industrial use, it is an essential element and is playing a very important role in the metabolism. In this study, it was aimed to determine the in vivo effects of boron on mRNA expression of HEX, NANOG, and OCT-3/4 genes in embryo and histological changes during fetal development. Therefore, totally 60 female rats were allocated into 5 equal groups. Experimental groups are as the followings; positive control (fed with standart rat diet), negative control (fed with boron free diet), low boron group (fed with boron free diet and given 0.04 µg boron/ml via gastric gavage), marginal boron group (fed with boron free diet and given 0.3 µg boron/ml via gastric gavage) and normal boron group (fed with boron free diet and given 2 µg boron/ml via gastric gavage). Experimental period was performed for 14 days. Embryos were collected after 4 days of mating and the expression and protein levels of early embryonic genes namely HEX, NANOG, and OCT-3/4 were determined by using Real-Time PCR. Also, 10-20 day embryo and fetus development were histologically determined. According to the results, mRNA expression and protein levels of early embryonic genes were increased in boron groups while decreased in boron deficient group. Histopathologically, tissue and organ developments were definitely observed in the boron groups. In conclusion, mRNA expression levels of early embryonic genes decreased in boron deficient group and boron has an important role for fetal development.

APP21 transgenic rats develop age-dependent cognitive impairment and microglia accumulation within white matter tracts.

BACKGROUND: Most of the animal models commonly used for preclinical research into Alzheimer's disease (AD) largely fail to address the pathophysiology, including the impact of known risk factors, of the widely diagnosed sporadic form of the disease. Here, we use a transgenic rat (APP21) that does not develop AD-like pathology spontaneously with age, but does develop pathology following vascular stress. To further the potential of this novel rat model as a much-needed pre-clinical animal model of sporadic AD, we characterize APP21 transgenic rats behaviorally and histologically up to 19 months of age. METHODS: The open field test was used as a measure of activity; and the Morris water maze was used to assess learning, memory, and strategy shift. Neuronal loss and microglia activation were also assessed throughout the brain. RESULTS: APP21 transgenic rats showed deficits in working memory from an early age, yet memory recall performance after 24 and 72 h was equal to that of wildtype rats and did not deteriorate with age. A deficit in strategy shift was observed at 19 months of age in APP21 transgenic rats compared to Fischer wildtype rats. Histologically, APP21 transgenic rats demonstrated accelerated white matter inflammation compared to wildtype rats, but interestingly no differences in neuron loss were observed. CONCLUSIONS: The combined presence of white matter pathology and executive function deficits mirrored what is often found in patients with mild cognitive impairment or early dementia, and suggests that this rat model will be useful for translationally meaningful studies into the development and prevention of sporadic AD. The presence of widespread white matter inflammation as the only observed pathological correlate for cognitive deficits raises new questions as to the role of neuroinflammation in cognitive decline.

Memory deficiency, cerebral amyloid angiopathy, and amyloid-ß plaques in APP+PS1 double transgenic rat model of Alzheimer's disease.

Transgenic rat models of Alzheimer's disease were used to examine differences in memory and brain histology. Double transgenic female rats (APP+PS1) over-expressing human amyloid precursor protein (APP) and presenilin 1 (PS1) and single transgenic rats (APP21) over-expressing human APP were compared with wild type Fischer rats (WT). The Barnes maze assessed learning and memory and showed that both APP21 and APP+PS1 rats made significantly more errors than the WT rats during the acquisition phase, signifying slower learning. Additionally, the APP+PS1 rats made significantly more errors following a retention interval, indicating impaired memory compared to both the APP21 and WT rats. Immunohistochemistry using an antibody against amyloid-ß (Aß) showed extensive and mostly diffuse Aß plaques in the hippocampus and dense plaques that contained tau in the cortex of the brains of the APP+PS1 rats. Furthermore, the APP+PS1 rats also showed vascular changes, including cerebral amyloid angiopathy with extensive Aß deposits in cortical and leptomeningeal blood vessel walls and venous collagenosis. In addition to the Aß accumulation observed in arterial, venous, and capillary walls, APP+PS1 rats also displayed enlarged blood vessels and perivascular space. Overall, the brain histopathology and behavioral assessment showed that the APP+PS1 rats demonstrated behavioral characteristics and vascular changes similar to those commonly observed in patients with Alzheimer's disease.

Membrane-lipid homeostasis in a prodromal rat model of Alzheimer's disease: Characteristic profiles in ganglioside distributions during aging detected using MALDI imaging mass spectrometry.

BACKGROUND: Accumulation of simple gangliosides GM2 and GM3, and gangliosides with longer long-chain bases (d20:1) have been linked to toxicity and the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Conversely, complex gangliosides, such as GM1, have been shown to be neuroprotective. Recent evidence using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization imaging mass spectrometry (MALDI-IMS) has demonstrated that a-series gangliosides are differentially altered during normal aging, yet it remains unclear how simple species are shifting relative to complex gangliosides in the prodromal stages of AD. METHODS: Ganglioside profiles in wild-type (Wt) and transgenic APP21 Fischer rats were detected and quantified using MALDI-IMS at P0 (birth), 3, 12, and 20 months of age and each species quantified to allow for individual species comparisons. RESULTS: Tg APP21 rats were found to have a decreased level of complex gangliosides in a number of brain regions as compared to Wt rats and showed higher levels of simple gangliosides. A unique pattern of expression was observed in the white matter as compared to gray matter regions, with an age-dependent decrease in GD1 d18:1 species observed and significantly elevated levels of GM3 in Tg APP21 rats. CONCLUSIONS: These results are indicative of a pathological shift in ganglioside homeostasis during aging that is exacerbated in Tg APP21 rats. GENERAL SIGNIFICANCE: Ganglioside dysregulation may occur in the prodromal stages of neurodegenerative diseases like AD.

Bone turnover is altered in transgenic rats overexpressing the P2Y2 purinergic receptor.

It is now widely recognized that purinergic signaling plays an important role in the regulation of bone remodeling. One receptor subtype, which has been suggested to be involved in this regulation, is the P2Y2 receptor (P2Y2R). In the present study, we investigated the effect of P2Y2R overexpression on bone status and bone cell function using a transgenic rat. Three-month-old female transgenic Sprague Dawley rats overexpressing P2Y2R (P2Y2R-Tg) showed higher bone strength of the femoral neck. Histomorphometry showed increase in resorptive surfaces and reduction in mineralizing surfaces. Both mineral apposition rate and thickness of the endocortical osteoid layer were higher in the P2Y2R-Tg rats. µCT analysis showed reduced trabecular thickness and structural model index in P2Y2R-Tg rats. Femoral length was increased in the P2Y2R-Tg rats compared to Wt rats. In vitro, there was an increased formation of osteoclasts, but no change in total resorption in cultures from P2Y2R-Tg rats. The formation of mineralized nodules was significantly reduced in the osteoblastic cultures from P2Y2R-Tg rats. In conclusion, our study suggests that P2Y2R is involved in regulation of bone turnover, due to the effects on both osteoblasts and osteoclasts and that these effects might be relevant in the regulation of bone growth.

Behavioural inflexibility in a comorbid rat model of striatal ischemic injury and mutant hAPP overexpression.

Alzheimer disease (AD) and stroke coexist and interact; yet how they interact is not sufficiently understood. Both AD and basal ganglia stroke can impair behavioural flexibility, which can be reliably modeled in rats using an established operant based set-shifting test. Transgenic Fischer 344-APP21 rats (TgF344) overexpress pathogenic human amyloid precursor protein (hAPP) but do not spontaneously develop overt pathology, hence TgF344 rats can be used to model the effect of vascular injury in the prodromal stages of Alzheimer disease. We demonstrate that the injection of endothelin-1 (ET1) into the dorsal striatum of TgF344 rats (Tg-ET1) produced an exacerbation of behavioural inflexibility with a behavioural phenotype that was distinct from saline-injected wildtype & TgF344 rats as well as ET1-injected wildtype rats (Wt-ET1). In addition to profiling the types of errors made, interpolative modeling using logistic exposure-response regression provided an informative analysis of the timing and efficiency of behavioural flexibility. During set-shifting, Tg-ET1 committed fewer perseverative errors than Wt-ET1. However, Tg-ET1 committed significantly more regressive errors and had a less efficient strategy change than all other groups. Thus, behavioural flexibility was more vulnerable to striatal ischemic injury in TgF344 rats.