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The Journal of Neuroscience, March 15, 2003, 23(6):2193
Mutant Huntingtin Causes Context-Dependent Neurodegeneration in
Mice with Huntington's Disease
Zhao-Xue
Yu,
Shi-Hua
Li,
Joy
Evans,
Ajay
Pillarisetti,
He
Li, and
Xiao-Jiang
Li
Department of Human Genetics, Emory University School of Medicine,
Atlanta, Georgia 30322
Huntington's disease (HD) mouse models that express N-terminal
huntingtin fragments show rapid disease progression and have been used
for developing therapeutics. However, light microscopy reveals no
significant neurodegeneration in these mice. It remains unclear how
mutant huntingtin induces neurodegeneration. Using caspase staining,
terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated biotinylated UTP nick
end labeling, and electron microscopy, we observed that N171-82Q
mice, which express the first 171 aa of mutant huntingtin, displayed
more degenerated neurons than did other HD mouse models. The
neurodegeneration was also evidenced by increased immunostaining for
glial fibrillary acidic protein and ultrastructural features of
apoptosis. R6/2 mice, which express exon 1 of mutant huntingtin, showed
dark, nonapoptotic neurons and degenerated mitochondria associated with
mutant huntingtin. In HD repeat knock-in mice (HdhCAG150), which
express full-length mutant huntingtin, degenerated cytoplasmic
organelles were found in both axons and neuronal cell bodies in
association with mutant huntingtin that was not labeled by an antibody
to huntingtin amino acids 342-456. Transfection of cultured cells with
mutant huntingtin revealed that an N-terminal huntingtin fragment
(amino acids 1-208 plus a 120 glutamine repeat) caused a greater
increase in caspase activity than did exon 1 huntingtin and longer
huntingtin fragments. These results suggest that context-dependent
neurodegeneration in HD may be mediated by different N-terminal
huntingtin fragments. In addition, this study has identified
neurodegenerative markers for the evaluation of therapeutic treatments
in HD mouse models.
Key words:
Huntington; polyglutamine; neurodegeneration; apoptosis; ultrastructure; transgenic
Copyright © 2003 Society for Neuroscience 0270-6474/03/2362193-10$05.00/0
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