TY - JOUR
T1 - Neurofibrillary tangles, amyotrophy and progressive motor disturbance in mice expressing mutant (P301L)tau protein
AU - Lewis, Jada
AU - McGowan, Eileen
AU - Rockwood, Julia
AU - Melrose, Heather
AU - Nacharaju, Parimala
AU - Van Slegtenhorst, Marjon
AU - Gwinn-Hardy, Katrina
AU - Murphy, M. P.
AU - Baker, Matt
AU - Yu, Xin
AU - Duff, Karen
AU - Hardy, John
AU - Corral, Anthony
AU - Lin, Wen Lang
AU - Yen, Shu Hui
AU - Dickson, Dennis W.
AU - Davies, Peter
AU - Hutton, Mike
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank S. Munger for oocyte injections; C. Zehr, L. Skipper, A. Grover and J. Adamson for genotyping; L. Rousseau and V. Philips for brain sectioning; M. McKinney for spinal cord dissections; F. Conkle, C. Ortega and D. Forste for mouse maintenance; and D. Borchelt for the MoPrP vector. This work was supported by the NIA (RO1 and PO1 grants to M.H., D.W.D., S.-H.Y., J.H., P.D.), The Mayo Foundation, The Society for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (to D.W.D.) and The Smith Scholar Program (to M.H.).
PY - 2000
Y1 - 2000
N2 - Neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) composed of the microtubule-associated protein tau are prominent in Alzheimer disease (AD), Pick disease, progressive supranuclear palsy (P5P) and corticobasal degeneration (CBD). Mutations in the gene (Mtapt) encoding tau protein cause frontotemporal dementia and parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17 (FTDP-17), thereby proving that tau dysfunction can directly result in neurodegeneration. Expression of human tau containing the most common FTDP-17 mutation (P301L) results in motor and behavioural deficits in transgenic mice, with age- and gene-dose-dependent development of NFT. This phenotype occurred as early as 6.5 months in hemizygous and 4.5 months in homozygous animals. NFT and Pick-body-like neuronal lesions occurred in the amygdala, septal nuclei, pre-optic nuclei, hypothalamus, midbrain, pons, medulla, deep cerebellar nuclei and spinal cord, with tau-immunoreactive pre-tangles in the cortex, hippocampus and basal ganglia. Areas with the most NFT had reactive gliosis. Spinal cord had axonal spheroids, anterior horn cell loss and axonal degeneration in anterior spinal roots. We also saw peripheral neuropathy and skeletal muscle with neurogenic atrophy. Brain and spinal cord contained insoluble tau that co-migrated with insoluble tau from AD and FTDP-17 brains. The phenotype of mice expressing P301L mutant tau mimics features of human tauopathies and provides a model for investigating the pathogenesis of diseases with NFT.
AB - Neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) composed of the microtubule-associated protein tau are prominent in Alzheimer disease (AD), Pick disease, progressive supranuclear palsy (P5P) and corticobasal degeneration (CBD). Mutations in the gene (Mtapt) encoding tau protein cause frontotemporal dementia and parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17 (FTDP-17), thereby proving that tau dysfunction can directly result in neurodegeneration. Expression of human tau containing the most common FTDP-17 mutation (P301L) results in motor and behavioural deficits in transgenic mice, with age- and gene-dose-dependent development of NFT. This phenotype occurred as early as 6.5 months in hemizygous and 4.5 months in homozygous animals. NFT and Pick-body-like neuronal lesions occurred in the amygdala, septal nuclei, pre-optic nuclei, hypothalamus, midbrain, pons, medulla, deep cerebellar nuclei and spinal cord, with tau-immunoreactive pre-tangles in the cortex, hippocampus and basal ganglia. Areas with the most NFT had reactive gliosis. Spinal cord had axonal spheroids, anterior horn cell loss and axonal degeneration in anterior spinal roots. We also saw peripheral neuropathy and skeletal muscle with neurogenic atrophy. Brain and spinal cord contained insoluble tau that co-migrated with insoluble tau from AD and FTDP-17 brains. The phenotype of mice expressing P301L mutant tau mimics features of human tauopathies and provides a model for investigating the pathogenesis of diseases with NFT.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0034426011&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=0034426011&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/78078
DO - 10.1038/78078
M3 - Article
C2 - 10932182
AN - SCOPUS:0034426011
SN - 1061-4036
VL - 25
SP - 402
EP - 405
JO - Nature Genetics
JF - Nature Genetics
IS - 4
ER -