Effect of MAO A deficiency on different kinds of aggression and social investigation in mice.
Monoamine oxidase A (MAO A) degrades serotonin, dopamine and noradrenaline, factors critically involved in the regulation of aggression. Different kinds of aggression were investigated in Tg8, a transgenic mouse strain lacking a functional MAO A gene. MAO A-deficient mice differ from wild-type C3H/HeJ (C3H) in terms of showing higher territorial, predatory and isolation-induced aggression. Tg8 demonstrated shorter latencies to cricket killing and to the first attack after 6 weeks isolation than C3H mice. In the resident-intruder paradigm, MAO A-lacking mice were more aggressive than C3H when tested as intruders. In contrast to C3H, attack in Tg8 mice did not depend on different aggressiveness of intruders of BALB/c, A/Sn and C3H strains. Tg8 mice displayed no increase in aggression but demonstrated reduced social investigation towards anesthetized, as well as towards juvenile BALB/c males. Thus, MAO A deficiency in Tg8 mice is accompanied by increased expression of different kinds of aggression, as well as by disruption of normal pattern of social interaction.
Vishnivetskaya
Galina B
GB
Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia.
Skrinskaya
Julia A
JA
Seif
Isabelle
I
Popova
Nina K
NK
D000374:Aggression; D000818:Animals; D051379:Mice; D008805:Mice, Inbred A; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008809:Mice, Inbred C3H; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D008995:Monoamine Oxidase / Q000172:deficiency*; D011235:Predatory Behavior; D012919:Social Behavior; D012934:Social Isolation
D008995:Monoamine Oxidase