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Behavioural abnormalities and selective neuronal loss in HD transgenic mice expressing mutated full-length HD cDNA

Nature Genetics volume 20, pages 198–202 (1998)Cite this article

Abstract

Huntington disease (HD) is an adult-onset, autosomal dominant inherited human neurodegenerative disorder characterized by hyperkinetic involuntary movements, including motor restlessness and chorea, slowing of voluntary movements and cognitive impairment. Selective regional neuron loss and gliosis in striatum, cerebral cortex, thalamus, subthalamus and hippocampus 1,2,3,4 are well recognized as neuropathological correlates for the clinical manifestations of HD. The underlying genetic mutation is the expansion of CAG trinucleotide repeats (coding for polyglutamines) to 36-121 copies in exon 1 of the HD gene 5,6,7,8. The HD mRNA and protein product (huntingtin) show widespread distribution9,10,11, and thus much remains to be understood about the selective and progressive neurodegeneration in HD. To create an experimental animal model for HD, transgenic mice were generated showing widespread expression of full-length human HD cDNA with either 16, 48 or 89 CAG repeats. Only mice with 48 or 89 CAG repeats manifested progressive behavioural and motor dysfunction with neuron loss and gliosis in striatum, cerebral cortex, thalamus and hippocampus. These animals represent clinically relevant models for HD pathogenesis, and may provide insights into the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms of other triplet repeat disorders.

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Figure 1: Transgenic analysis.
Figure 2: Comparative sections of human and mouse striatum.
Figure 3: Neurodegeneration in HD transgenic mice.
Figure 4: Apoptosis in HD transgenic mice.
Figure 5: Immunoreactivity with anti-huntingtin and anti-ubiquitin.

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Acknowledgements

We thank R. Albin for stimulating discussions and G. Auburger and F.S. Collins for critical reading of the manuscript. We are grateful to M. MacDonald, Y.-F. Liu and R. Myers for generous gifts of HF1, 437 and αHD1 antibodies, respectively. We thank M. Erdos, T. Hernandez, A. Chen, C. Rivas, E. Stockburger and T. Moss for technical assistance. This work was supported in part by USPHS grant NS-28236 to W.O.W.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Genetics and Molecular Biology Branch, Building 49, Room 3A26, 49 Convent Drive MSC 4442, Bethesda , 20892, Maryland, USA

    P. Hemachandra Reddy, Maya Williams, Vinod Charles, Lisa Pike-Buchanan & Danilo A. Tagle

  2. Laboratory of Genetic Disease Research,

    Lisa Garrett

  3. National Human Genome Research Institute,, Building 49, Room 3A26, 49 Convent Drive MSC 4442, Bethesda, 20892 , Maryland, USA

    Lisa Garrett

  4. Office of Research Services, Veterinary Resources Program,

    Georgina Miller

  5. National Institutes of Health, Building 49, Room 3A26, 49 Convent Drive MSC 4442, Bethesda, 20892 , Maryland, USA

    Georgina Miller

  6. Department of Pathology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, 37232, Tennessee, USA

    William O. Whetsell Jr

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  1. P. Hemachandra Reddy
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Correspondence to Danilo A. Tagle.

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Reddy, P., Williams, M., Charles, V. et al. Behavioural abnormalities and selective neuronal loss in HD transgenic mice expressing mutated full-length HD cDNA. Nat Genet 20, 198–202 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/2510

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