Author
Listed:
- Jac Kee Low
- Ananthan Ambikairajah
- Kani Shang
- David A Brown
- Vicky W W Tsai
- Samuel N Breit
- Tim Karl
Abstract
Macrophage inhibitory cytokine-1 (MIC-1), also known as growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15), is a stress response cytokine. MIC-1/GDF15 is secreted into the cerebrospinal fluid and increased levels of MIC-1/GDF15 are associated with a variety of diseases including cognitive decline. Furthermore, Mic-1/Gdf15 knockout mice (Mic-1 KO) weigh more, have increased adiposity, associated with increased spontaneous food intake, and exhibit reduced basal energy expenditure and physical activity. The current study was designed to comprehensively determine the role of MIC-1/GDF15 on behavioural domains of male and female knockout mice including locomotion, exploration, anxiety, cognition, social behaviours, and sensorimotor gating. Mic-1 KO mice exhibited a task-dependent increase in locomotion and exploration and reduced anxiety-related behaviours across tests. Spatial working memory and social behaviours were not affected by Mic-1/Gdf15 deficiency. Interestingly, knockout mice formed an increased association with the conditioned stimulus in fear conditioning testing and also displayed significantly improved prepulse inhibition. Overall sex effects were evident for social behaviours, fear conditioning, and sensorimotor gating. This is the first study defining the role of Mic-1/Gdf15 in a number of behavioural domains. Whether the observed impact is based on direct actions of Mic-1/Gdf15 deficiency on the CNS or whether the behavioural effects are mediated by indirect actions on e.g. other neurotransmitter systems must be clarified in future studies.
Suggested Citation
Jac Kee Low & Ananthan Ambikairajah & Kani Shang & David A Brown & Vicky W W Tsai & Samuel N Breit & Tim Karl, 2017.
"First Behavioural Characterisation of a Knockout Mouse Model for the Transforming Growth Factor (TGF)-β Superfamily Cytokine, MIC-1/GDF15,"
PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(1), pages 1-14, January.
Handle:
RePEc:plo:pone00:0168416
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0168416
Download full text from publisher
Corrections
All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0168416. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through
the various RePEc services.