Age-related cognitive decline in spatial learning and memory of C57BL/6J mice

Jhana O Hendrickx; Sofie De Moudt; Elke Calus; Peter Paul De Deyn; Debby Van Dam; Guido R Y De Meyer

doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2021.113649

Age-related cognitive decline in spatial learning and memory of C57BL/6J mice

Behav Brain Res. 2022 Feb 10:418:113649. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2021.113649. Epub 2021 Oct 30.

Authors

Jhana O Hendrickx¹, Sofie De Moudt¹, Elke Calus², Peter Paul De Deyn³, Debby Van Dam³, Guido R Y De Meyer⁴

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Physiopharmacology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical, Biomedical and Veterinary Sciences, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.
² Laboratory of Neurochemistry and Behaviour, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.
³ Laboratory of Neurochemistry and Behaviour, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium; Department of Neurology and Alzheimer Research Center, University of Groningen and University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
⁴ Laboratory of Physiopharmacology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical, Biomedical and Veterinary Sciences, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium. Electronic address: guido.demeyer@uantwerpen.be.

PMID: 34728276
DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2021.113649

Abstract

During the last decades, most of the preclinical neurodegenerative research was performed in mouse models of amyloidosis, tauopathies or α-synucleinopathies preferentially maintained on a C57BL/6J background. However, comprehensive neurobehavioural data from C57BL/6J mice outlining the critical point of spontaneous cognitive decline are incomplete. In this study, we aimed for the neurobehavioural phenotyping of hippocampus-dependent spatial learning and memory of aging C57BL/6J mice. Neurobehavioural phenotyping was performed by means of a Morris Water Maze (MWM) and a Novel Object Recognition (NOR) test. MWM measurements revealed signs of age-related memory loss in C57BL/6J animals from the age of 6 months onward. The NOR assessment strengthened latter finding by decreasing discrimination indexes (DI) and recognition indexes (RI) starting from the age of 6 months. Taken together, these findings contribute to the current knowledge of spontaneous cognitive behaviours of this perhaps most widely used mouse strain and serve as a benchmark for dementia mouse models to distinguish spontaneous from pathological neurodegenerative behaviour.

Keywords: C57BL/6J; Morris water maze; Novel object recognition; Spontaneous cognitive decline.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Aging / physiology*
Animals
Cognitive Dysfunction / physiopathology*
Disease Models, Animal
Hippocampus
Male
Memory / physiology*
Mice
Mice, Inbred C57BL*
Morris Water Maze Test
Open Field Test
Spatial Learning / physiology*