Strain information
 NBRP Rat No: 0012  Strain name: SER/Kyo  Commmon Name: SER, Spontaneously Epileptic Rat Rat Genome Database
Principal Investigator:  Tadao Serikawa  Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University       Yoshidakonoe-cho, Sakyo-ku    606-8501 Kyoto     JAPAN
Tel: 075-753-4360    Fax: 075-753-4409 Email: serikawa@anim.med.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Preservation Status:   Embryo        Sperm       Living Animals ../images/Photos/SER/SER_090812_1024.jpg ../images/Photos/SER-zizi%20++/DSC00028%20(Large).JPG
Coat Color  albino (c)
Inbred Generations  F73 (March 2012)
Usage Restrictions  The recipient of BIOLOGICAL RESOURCE shall obtain a prior written consent on use of it from the DEPOSITOR.
For a commercial use of this resource, a new contract must be concluded between the depositor and the recipient.
Genetic Status
 Inbred  Segregating  Congenic  Consomic  Recombinant
 Coisogenic  Spont. Mutant  Transgene  Ind. Mutant  Category Other 
Comercial Availability
Research Category
 Diabetes Obesity  Neurobiology  Ophthalmology  Dentistry  Cardio Hypertension
 Cancer  Metabolism  Otorhinology  Immunology  Infectious
 Osteosis  Internal Organ  Dermatology  Reproduction  Development
 Behavior  Hematology  Urology  Pharmacology  Research Area Others 
 Control Strain  Marker Strain
Gene Affected Atrn: attractin, Aspa: aspartoacylase
Origin Spontaneously Epileptic Rat (SER) was established as a double mutant by Serikawa by crossing tremor rats (later established as an inbred rat strain, TRM/Kyo, NBRP No.0015) and zitter rats (later established as an inbred rat strain, ZI/Kyo, NBRP No.0024) at Kyoto University (Serikawa, 1986). Their phenotype is caused by double mutations of tremor (tm) and zitter (zi) This strain is maintained by sib-mating of crossing the zi homozygous and the tm heterozygous. By positional cloning, an 8-bp deletion of attractin gene (Atrn) was identified as zi mutation (Kuramoto, 2001) and about 200-kb deletion including aspartoacylase gene (Aspa) was identified as tm mutation (Kitada, 2000). (Oct 20, 2009)
Strain characteristics SER shows both absence-like seizure sand tonic convulsions (Serikawa, 1986; Sasa, 1988). Body tremors are observed between 2 and 11 weeks of age (Serikawa, 1991). Absence-like seizures characterized 5-7 Hz spike -wave-like complex are observed after 5 weeks of age and tonic seizures are observed after 6 weeks of age. Wild jumping or running episodes appear from 8-14 weeks of age (Asano, 1991). Pharmacologically, both absence-like and tonic seizures of SER are similar to those of human (Sasa, 1988). SER shows hypomyelination, vacuolation or spongiform degeneration (Inui, 1990; Kondo, 1991), sterile, waved hair, curled whiskers (Serikawa, 1986), auditory deficit (Kuse, 1991) and delayed postnatal behavioral development (Asano, 1990).
Other reports using this strain are as follow: calcium channel (Sasa, 1992; Ishihara, 1993; Momiyama, 1995; Amano H, 2001; Amano T, 2001; Yan, 200), sodium channel (Guo, 2008) and neuropeptides (Takahashi, 2000). (Oct 20, 2009)
Breeding Conditions Maintained in homozygous zi allele and heterozygous tm allele.
Genotyping 8 bp deletion of Atrn gene for zi allele, genomic deletion of Aspa gene for tm allele. Genotyping protocol for Atrn Genotyping protocol for tm
References Serikawa T and Yamada J.
Epileptic seizures in rats homozygous for two mutations, zitter and tremor.
J Hered. 1986 Nov-Dec;77(6):441-4.

Kitada K, Akimitsu T, Shigematsu Y, Kondo A, Maihara T, Yokoi N, Kuramoto T, Sasa M and Serikawa, T.
Accumulation of N-acetyl-L-aspartate in the brain of the tremor rat, a mutant exhibiting absence-like seizure and spongiform degeneration in the central nervous system.
J Neurochem. 2000 Jun;74(6):2512-9.

Kuramoto T, Kitada K, Inui T, Sasaki Y, Ito K, Hase T, Kawaguchi S, Ogawa Y, Nakao K, Barsh GS, Nagao M, Ushijima T and Serikawa T.
Attractin/Mahogany/Zitter plays a critical role in myelination of the central nervous system.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2001 Jan 16;98(2):559-64.

Sasa M, Ohno Y, Ujihara H, Fujita Y, Yoshimura M, Takaori S, Serikawa T, Yamada J.
Effects of antiepileptic drugs on absence-like and tonic seizures in the spontaneously epileptic rat, a double mutant rat.
Epilepsia. 1988 Sep-Oct;29(5):505-13.

Serikawa T, Yamada J, Ujihara H, Ohno Y, Sasa M, Takaori S.
Ontogeny of absence-like and tonic seizures in the spontaneously epileptic rat.
Lab Anim. 1991 Jul;25(3):216-21.

Asano Y, Okaniwa A, Serikawa T, Yamada J.
Behavioural characteristics of wild jumping or running episodes in the double mutant spontaneously epileptic rat.
Lab Anim. 1990 Apr;24(2):131-6.

Inui T, Yamamura T, Yuasa H, Kawai Y, Okaniwa A, Serikawa T, Yamada J.
The spontaneously epileptic rat (SER), a zitter*tremor double mutant rat: histopathological findings in the central nervous system.
Brain Res. 1990 May 28;517(1-2):123-33.

Kondo A, Nagara H, Akazawa K, Tateishi J, Serikawa T, Yamada J.
CNS pathology in the neurological mutant rats zitter, tremor and zitter-tremor double mutant (spontaneously epileptic rat, SER). Exaggeration of clinical and neuropathological phenotypes in SER.
Brain. 1991 Apr;114 ( Pt 2):979-99.

Kuse H, Inui T, Asano Y, Hori M, Okaniwa A, Serikawa T, Yamada J.
Auditory brainstem response (ABR) in spontaneously epileptic rats (SER) and their parent mutants.
J Vet Med Sci. 1991 Aug;53(4):629-36.

Sasa M, Ishihara K, Momiyama T, Renming X, Todo N, Amano T, Serikawa T, Yamada J.
Abnormal calcium current in hippocampal CA3 pyramidal cells of the spontaneously epileptic rat (SER).
Jpn J Psychiatry Neurol. 1992 Jun;46(2):526-8.

Ishihara K, Sasa M, Momiyama T, Ujihara H, Nakamura J, Serikawa T, Yamada J, Takaori S.
Abnormal excitability of hippocampal CA3 pyramidal neurons of spontaneously epileptic rats (SER), a double mutant.
Exp Neurol. 1993 Feb;119(2):287-90.

Momiyama T, Ishihara K, Serikawa T, Moritake K, Sasa M.
Effect of nicardipine on abnormal excitability of CA3 pyramidal cells in hippocampal slices of spontaneously epileptic rats.
Eur J Pharmacol. 1995 Jul 4;280(2):119-23.

Amano H, Amano T, Matsubayashi H, Ishihara K, Serikawa T, Sasa M.
Enhanced calcium influx in hippocampal CA3 neurons of spontaneously epileptic rats.
Epilepsia. 2001 Mar;42(3):345-50.

Amano T, Amano H, Matsubayashi H, Ishihara K, Serikawa T, Sasa M.
Enhanced Ca(2+) influx with mossy fiber stimulation in hippocampal CA3 neurons of spontaneously epileptic rats.
Brain Res. 2001 Aug 10;910(1-2):199-203.

Yan HD, Ishihara K, Hanaya R, Kurisu K, Serikawa T, Sasa M.
Voltage-dependent calcium channel abnormalities in hippocampal CA3 neurons of spontaneously epileptic rats.
Epilepsia. 2007 Apr;48(4):758-64.

Guo F, Yu N, Cai JQ, Quinn T, Zong ZH, Zeng YJ, Hao LY.
Voltage-gated sodium channel Nav1.1, Nav1.3 and beta1 subunit were up-regulated in the hippocampus of spontaneously epileptic rat.
Brain Res Bull. 2008 Jan 31;75(1):179-87.

Takahashi Y, Tsunashima K, Sadamatsu M, Schwarzer C, Amano S, Ihara N, Sasa M, Kato N, Sperk G.
Altered hippocampal expression of neuropeptide Y, somatostatin, and glutamate decarboxylase in Ihara's epileptic rats and spontaneously epileptic rats.
Neurosci Lett. 2000 Jun 23;287(2):105-8.

Yan HD, Ishihara K, Seki T, Hanaya R, Kurisu K, Arita K, Serikawa T, Sasa M.
Inhibitory effects of levetiracetam on the high-voltage-activated L-type Ca(2+) channels in hippocampal CA3 neurons of spontaneously epileptic rat (SER).
Brain Res Bull. 2013 Jan;90:142-8.

Serikawa T, Mashimo T, Kuramoto T, Voigt B, Ohno Y, Sasa M.
Advances on Genetic Rat Models of Epilepsy.
Exp Anim. 64(1):1-7, 2015.
Additional strain information SER