Publikationsdatenbank

Impaired spatial memory and altered dendritic spine morphology in angiotensin II type 2 receptor-deficient mice (2008)

Art

Zeitschriftenartikel / wissenschaftlicher Beitrag

Autoren

Maul, Björn

von Bohlen und Halbach, Oliver

Becker, Axel

Sterner-Kock, Anja

Voigt, Jörg-Peter

Siems, Wolf-Eberhard

Grecksch, Gisela

Walther, Thomas

Quelle

Journal of molecular medicine : JMM ; official organ of the Gesellschaft Deutscher Naturforscher und Ärzte

Bandzählung: 86

Heftzählung: 5

Seiten: 563 – 71

ISSN: 0946-2716

Sprache

Englisch

Verweise

DOI: 10.1007/s00109-008-0316-4

Pubmed: 18335189

Kontakt

Institut für Tierpathologie

Robert-von-Ostertag-Str. 15
14163 Berlin
+49 30 838 62450
pathologie@vetmed.fu-berlin.de

Abstract / Zusammenfassung

Mental retardation is the most frequent cause of serious handicap in children and young adults. Mutations in the human angiotensin II type 2 receptor (AT2) have been implicated in X-linked forms of mental retardation. We here demonstrate that mice lacking the AT2 receptor gene are significantly impaired in their performance in a spatial memory task and in a one-way active avoidance task. As no difference was observed between the genotypes in fear conditioning, the detected deficit in spatial memory may not relate to fear. Notably, receptor knockout mice showed increased motility in an activity meter and elevated plus maze. Importantly, these mice are characterized by abnormal dendritic spine morphology and length, both features also found to be associated with some cases of mental retardation. These findings suggest a crucial role of AT2 in normal brain function and that dysfunction of the receptor has impact on brain development and ultrastructural morphology with distinct consequences on learning and memory.