Breeder Diet Strategies for Generating Ttpa-Null and Wild-Type Mice with Low Vitamin E Status to Assess Neurological Outcomes

Katherine M Ranard; Matthew J Kuchan; John W Erdman Jr

doi:10.1093/cdn/nzaa155

Breeder Diet Strategies for Generating Ttpa-Null and Wild-Type Mice with Low Vitamin E Status to Assess Neurological Outcomes

Curr Dev Nutr. 2020 Oct 8;4(11):nzaa155. doi: 10.1093/cdn/nzaa155. eCollection 2020 Nov.

Authors

Katherine M Ranard¹, Matthew J Kuchan², John W Erdman Jr¹

Affiliations

¹ Division of Nutritional Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA.
² Abbott Nutrition, Columbus, OH, USA.

Abstract

Studying vitamin E [α-tocopherol (α-T)] metabolism and function in the brain and other tissues requires an animal model with low α-T status, such as the transgenic α-T transfer protein (Ttpa)-null (Ttpa ^- ^/ ^-) mouse model. Ttpa ⁺ ^/ ^- dams can be used to produce Ttpa ^- ^/ ^- and Ttpa^+/+ mice for these studies. However, the α-T content in Ttpa ⁺ ^/ ^- dams' diet requires optimization; diets must provide sufficient α-T for reproduction, while minimizing the transfer of α-T to the offspring destined for future studies that require low baseline α-T status. The goal of this work was to assess the effectiveness and feasibility of 2 breeding diet strategies on reproduction outcomes and offspring brain α-T concentrations. These findings will help standardize the breeding methodology used to generate the Ttpa ^- ^/ ^- mice for neurological studies.

Keywords: breeding diet strategies; mouse; reproduction; vitamin E; α-tocopherol transfer protein.