The aims of this thesis were to investigate and validate the IntelliCage (New Behaviour, Zurich, Switzerland) as a new behavioural testing system using two different protocols. 1- Determining differences in activity and spatial learning in genetically altered PLB1 mice that express different features of Alzheimer’s disease and genes, assess their ability to learn the location of a designated water source (corner) within the IntelliCage. Different genotypes were used i.e PLB1wt (control),PLB1tau,PLB1Double (APP & TAU),PLB1Triple (APP, TAU & PSEN) and PLB1APP, and 3 different age groups (5,12 and 20 months). 2- Assessment of drug-induced changes in activity and spatial learning in two strains of mice (C57BL/6 and DBA) at approximately 6 weeks of age. Four different drug treatments, injected intraperitoneally prior to the beginning of the dark cycle were studied i.e, Apomorphine 6.4mg/kg (APO), Phencyclidine 1mg/kg & 4mg/kg (PCP), Scopolamine 0.5mg/kg (scop) and saline (vehicle). Parameters investigated included overall visits (habituation and training) and correct visits to trained corner. Our results indicate that the IntelliCage is sensitive enough to detect strain differences in reference to activity levels, spatial learning and drug treatments. It was particularly obvious in the PLB1 study that the IntelliCage can detect deficits in different age groups as it was possible to see learning differences within genotypes over three age groups. The IntelliCage can detect learning deficits in the 5 and 12 months groups, and confirms that all genotypes including the controls do not show learning at 20 months. With reference to the drug experiments, determination of drug wash out periods was assessed by manipulating the data into hourly bins. Treating groups with different drugs also produced different effects between strains; the C57BL/6 mice were most affected by APO during assessment of overall activity whereas the DBA mice’s behaviour was most affected by both PCP treatments. Investigation of spatial learning has revealed the C57BL/6 groups all performed reliably above chance (25%) and showed a significant increase in trained corner visits post drug, the DBA groups all failed to reliably learn above chance (25%) during 12 hours post drug injection. Comparing strains found that the only drug to cause an interaction was APO. It is possible to confirm that the IntelliCage is only useful for detecting genotype differences and drug effects on the C57BL/6 strain as no significant differences can be seen between the DBA drug treated groups.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:558581 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Woodcock, Hilary |
| Publisher | University of Aberdeen |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=166949 |
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