Summary
Transgenic technology can be successfully applied to develop a small animal model of Alzheimer’s disease. We describe a transgenic mouse which has been genetically programmed for neuronal overexpression of the 751 amino acid isoform of the human amyloid precursor protein and which displays histological features of Alzheimer’s disease. These features include extracellular deposits of human amyloid derived from the transgene and aberrancies in the neuronal cytoskeleton. Both of these structures increase in frequency with the age of the animal, paralleling the human condition. While the typical transgenic mouse presents with an early Alzheimer’s disease-like phenotype, occasionally some mice show advanced histopathology. Characteristics of more mature Alzheimer’s disease-like pathology include large amyloid deposits associated with gliosis and dystrophic neurites. These results indicate the murine brain is capable of reproducing features of Alzheimer’s disease, providing validity to the transgenic approach in obtaining a small animal model for study and therapeutic development.
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© 1994 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Cordell, B., Higgins, L. (1994). A Transgenic Mouse Model of Alzheimer’s Disease. In: Masters, C.L., Beyreuther, K., Trillet, M., Christen, Y. (eds) Amyloid Protein Precursor in Development, Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease. Research and Perspectives in Alzheimer’s Disease. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-01135-5_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-01135-5_14
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