title: Spatial learning deficits in amyloid precursor protein 770 transgenic mice.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine whether learning deficits could be seen in transgenic mice expressing human amyloid precursor protein 770 (APP770).
  
  
  METHODS
  Female heterozygous transgenic and nontransgenic mice aged 3, 6 and 9 months at the start of testing were used, with eight mice in each age group. All mice were subjected to various behavioral tasks including the Y-maze task and the Morris water maze. After behavioral testing, the mice were sacrificed, and their brain tissues were used for measuring the choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) activity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Nine-month-old transgenic mice exhibited spatial learning deficits in the Morris water maze and in spontaneous alternation in the Y-maze, compared with those of the age-matched non-transgenic mice. The behavioral changes accompanied a reduction of ChAT activity in the cortical and hippocampal regions of transgenic mice. On the other hand, these behavioral deficits were not observed in transgenic mice either at 3 or at 6 months of age, in which ChAT activity remained unchanged.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present results show that the learning impairment observed in 9-month-old APP770 transgenic mice are accompanied by a decrease in cortical and hippocampal ChAT activities. This suggests that cholinergic deficits may be involved in the learning impairment observed in these APP770 mice. This model will be a useful tool in advancing our understanding of the relationship between the cholinergic system and the cognitive deficits observed in Alzheimer's disease (AD).
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, China. lihui_mail@yahoo.com
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D016564:Amyloid beta-Protein Precursor / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001007:Anxiety / Q000209:etiology; D002795:Choline O-Acetyltransferase / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D007859:Learning Disabilities / Q000209:etiology*; D018782:Maze Learning; D008568:Memory / Q000187:drug effects; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic
chemical_list: D016564:Amyloid beta-Protein Precursor; D002795:Choline O-Acetyltransferase