title: Aberrant self-grooming as early marker of motor dysfunction in a rat model of Huntington's disease.
abstract: In the study of neurodegenerative diseases, rodent models provide experimentally accessible systems to study multiple pathogenetic aspects. The identification of early and robust behavioural changes is crucial to monitoring disease progression and testing potential therapeutic strategies in animals. Consistent experimental data support the translational value of rodent self-grooming as index of disturbed motor functions and perseverative behaviour patterns in different rodent models of brain disorders. Huntington's disease (HD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder, characterized by severe degeneration of basal ganglia, cognitive and psychiatric impairments and motor abnormalities. In the rat species, intrastriatal injection of the excitotoxin quinolinic acid (QA) mimics some of the neuroanatomical and behavioural changes found in HD, including the loss of GABAergic neurons and the appearance of motor and cognitive deficits. We show here that striatal damage induced by unilateral QA injection in dorsal striatum of rats triggers aberrant grooming behaviour as early as three weeks post-lesion in absence of other motor impairments: specifically, both quantitative (frequency and duration) and qualitative (the sequential pattern of movements) features of self-grooming behaviour were significantly altered in QA-lesioned rats placed in either the elevated plus-maze and the open-field. The consistent abnormalities in self-grooming recorded in two different experimental contexts support the use of this behavioural marker in rodent models of striatal damage such as HD, to assess the potential effects of drug and cell replacement therapy in the early stage of disease.
authors.affiliation: Unit of Neurotoxicology and Neuroendocrinology, Department of Cell Biology and Neurosciences, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy; Department of Neurology and Psychiatry, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Anna Maria
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Tartaglione
authors.affiliation: Unit of Central Nervous System Pharmacology, Department of Therapeutic Research and Medicine Evaluation, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Armida
authors.affiliation: Unit of Central Nervous System Pharmacology, Department of Therapeutic Research and Medicine Evaluation, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Rosa Luisa
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Potenza
authors.affiliation: Unit of Central Nervous System Pharmacology, Department of Therapeutic Research and Medicine Evaluation, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonella
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pezzola
authors.affiliation: Unit of Central Nervous System Pharmacology, Department of Therapeutic Research and Medicine Evaluation, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Patrizia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Popoli
authors.affiliation: Unit of Neurotoxicology and Neuroendocrinology, Department of Cell Biology and Neurosciences, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy. Electronic address: gemma.calamandrei@iss.it.
authors.forename: Gemma
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Calamandrei
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001058:Apomorphine / Q000008:administration & dosage; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000187:drug effects*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006120:Grooming / Q000187:drug effects*; D006816:Huntington Disease / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D017378:Quinolinic Acid; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
chemical_list: D017378:Quinolinic Acid; D001058:Apomorphine
keywords: Basal ganglia disorder; Huntington's disease; Motor disease; Self grooming