title: Lessons learned from the transgenic Huntington's disease rats.
abstract: Huntington's disease (HD) is a fatal inherited disorder leading to selective neurodegeneration and neuropsychiatric symptoms. Currently, there is no treatment to slow down or to stop the disease. There is also no therapy to effectively reduce the symptoms. In the investigation of novel therapies, different animal models of Huntington's disease, varying from insects to nonhuman primates, have been created and used. Few years ago, the first transgenic rat model of HD, carrying a truncated huntingtin cDNA fragment with 51 CAG repeats under control of the native rat huntingtin promoter, was introduced. We have been using this animal model in our research and review here our experience with the behavioural, neurophysiological, and histopathological phenotype of the transgenic Huntington's disease rats with relevant literature.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Maastricht University Medical Center, 6229 ER Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Rinske
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vlamings
authors.forename: Dagmar H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Zeef
authors.forename: Marcus L F
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Janssen
authors.forename: Mayke
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Oosterloo
authors.forename: Frederic
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Schaper
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jahanshahi
authors.forename: Yasin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Temel
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D000071058:Huntingtin Protein; D006816:Huntington Disease / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D009420:Nervous System / Q000473:pathology; D009424:Nervous System Physiological Phenomena; D010641:Phenotype; D051381:Rats; D055647:Rats, Transgenic / Q000502:physiology*; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid
chemical_list: D018076:DNA, Complementary; C086055:HTT protein, human; D000071058:Huntingtin Protein; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins