Cognitive impairment associated with memory loss and dysfunctional communication is a common condition in older people. Regions of the brain have been reported to decrease in size with increasing age, but the relationship with cognitive impairment is not well understood. Inbred and hybrid mouse strains can be useful models to investigate cognitive impairment and morphological changes at older ages. CB6F1 hybrid mice, a cross between C57BL/6 and Balb/c mice, were tested for learning and memory using a radial water tread maze. Old CB6F1 male mice (30 months of age) had severe cognitive impairment, while it was virtually absent in young (6 months old) male mice. In these same mice, there was a significant decrease in sagittal flat surface area of the hippocampus and pons in old versus young animals. The aging CB6F1 mouse would be a potential model to study the relationship between changes in brain morphometry and cognitive impairment and the identification of possible therapeutic targets.
Keywords: CB6F1 mouse; aging; brain size; cognitive impairment; mouse model of brain aging.