Enhanced Fos expression in the hippocampus of El mice after short-term vestibular stimulation.
The El mouse is an animal model for human epilepsy. The mouse manifest seizures in response to periodically repeated vestibular stimuli such as being tossing-up. Although this technique has been traditionally employed to accelerate this disease in the mouse, its meaning remained obscure. The present study was conducted to estimate the effects of tossing-up stimuli on expression of c-fos, a well-known marker of neuronal activation. Expression of c-fos was significantly increased even after single tossing-up specimen. It was blocked by pretreatment of the mouse with MK-801, a NMDA receptor antagonist. A marked expression of the oncoprotein was observed in the granule cell layer of dentate gyrus and CA1-3 pyramidal cell layer in the hippocampus of the mouse. These results suggest that the El mice are genetically hyper-sensitive to the vestibular stimuli.
Nakagawa
Y
Y
Nagoya University Bioscience Center, Chikusa, Japan.
Asano
Y
Y
Awatsu
N
N
Sawada
M
M
Nakano
K
K
D000818:Animals; D015152:Blotting, Northern; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008817:Mice, Mutant Strains; D016760:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000096:biosynthesis; D012640:Seizures / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology; D013997:Time Factors; D014722:Vestibule, Labyrinth / Q000502:physiology*
D016760:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos; D012333:RNA, Messenger