title: Mouse genetic differences in voluntary wheel running, adult hippocampal neurogenesis and learning on the multi-strain-adapted plus water maze.
abstract: Moderate levels of aerobic exercise broadly enhance cognition throughout the lifespan. One hypothesized contributing mechanism is increased adult hippocampal neurogenesis. Recently, we measured the effects of voluntary wheel running on adult hippocampal neurogenesis in 12 different mouse strains, and found increased neurogenesis in all strains, ranging from 2- to 5-fold depending on the strain. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which increased neurogenesis from wheel running is associated with enhanced performance on the water maze for 5 of the 12 strains, chosen based on their levels of neurogenesis observed in the previous study (C57BL/6 J, 129S1/SvImJ, B6129SF1/J, DBA/2 J, and B6D2F1/J). Mice were housed with or without a running wheels for 30 days then tested for learning and memory on the plus water maze, adapted for multiple strains, and rotarod test of motor performance. The first 10 days, animals were injected with BrdU to label dividing cells. After behavioral testing animals were euthanized to measure adult hippocampal neurogenesis using standard methods. Levels of neurogenesis depended on strain but all mice had a similar increase in neurogenesis in response to exercise. All mice acquired the water maze but performance depended on strain. Exercise improved water maze performance in all strains to a similar degree. Rotarod performance depended on strain. Exercise improved rotarod performance only in DBA/2 J and B6D2F1/J mice. Taken together, results demonstrate that despite different levels of neurogenesis, memory performance and motor coordination in these mouse strains, all strains have the capacity to increase neurogenesis and improve learning on the water maze through voluntary wheel running.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Psychology and Interdisciplinary Sciences Building, Emory University, 36 Eagle Row, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Jennifer R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Merritt
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 405 North Mathews Avenue, Urbana, IL, USA. Electronic address: jrhodes@illinois.edu.
authors.forename: Justin S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Rhodes
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001973:Bromodeoxyuridine; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology*; D006799:Housing, Animal; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D057507:Mice, 129 Strain / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D008811:Mice, Inbred DBA / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D055495:Neurogenesis / Q000502:physiology*; D045442:Rotarod Performance Test; D012420:Running / Q000502:physiology; D013045:Species Specificity; D013550:Swimming / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D001973:Bromodeoxyuridine
keywords: Adult neurogenesis; Exercise; Hippocampus; Rotarod; Spatial learning; Strain differences