Expression and significance of DSCAM in the cerebral cortex of APP transgenic mice.
Down syndrome cell adhesion molecule (DSCAM) plays important roles in the regulation of synaptogenesis, neurite outgrowth, axon guidance and synapse formation. Overexpression of DSCAM in Down syndrome (DS) may be involved in the pathogenesis of mental retardation through an inhibitory action on synaptogenesis/neurite outgrowth, and in the precocious dementia associated with an amyloid precursor protein (APP) dosage effect with enhanced plaque formation. In this report we examined the expression of DSCAM in the cerebral cortex of APP transgenic mice versus age-matched wild-type mice. We found that the level of DSCAM expression increased with increasing age in both groups of mice, up to a maximum at 3 months old. The level of DSCAM expression in APP transgenic mice was significantly higher than in the age-matched wild types. We propose that overexpression of DSCAM in the cerebral cortex might play an important role in the learning and memory defects of APP transgenic mice.
Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, No. 1, East Jian She Road, Zhengzhou, Henan Province 450052, China. jiayanjie1971@yahoo.com.cn
Yong-Lin
YL
Jia
Li-Jun
LJ
Jing
Jin-Yi
JY
Li
Jing-Jing
JJ
Lu
Rui
R
Han
Shu-Yang
SY
Wang
Tao
T
Peng
Yan-Jie
YJ
Jia
D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D016564:Amyloid beta-Protein Precursor / Q000235:genetics*; D000818:Animals; D015153:Blotting, Western; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
D016564:Amyloid beta-Protein Precursor; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules; C491735:Dscam protein, mouse