Strain Characteristics |
The tremor behavior was exhibited from around 3 weeks of age and inherited as an autosomal recessive trait. The mutant rats had variously sized vacuoles in the neuropil and white matter throughout the central nervous system, especially in the brain stem, cerebellum, and spinal cord. Ultrastructurally these vacuoles mainly consisted of splitting of myelin lamella both in the periaxonal and intermyelinic spaces. No abnormality was found in the number and morphology of oligodendrocytes in MV rats, although the severity and extent of myelin disorder increased with age. Coincident with the myelin abnormalities, there was progressive astrogliosis from 2 weeks. Marked microglial activation was observed exclusively in the gray matter of MV rats from 6 weeks, coincident with severe myelin disruption. Genetic studies revealed 6.914-bp deletion including the whole exon 1 of the attractin (<i>Atrn</i>) gene in MV rats and Northern blot analysis showed no expression of Atrn mRNA in the brain of MV rats. Therefore, the MV rat is a null mutation of the <i>Atrn</i> gene. (Mar 9, 2009) |
References |
Izawa T, Yamate J, Franklin RJ, Kuwamura M. Abnormal myelinogenesis both in the white and gray matter of the attractin-deficient mv rat. Brain Res. 2010 Feb 2;1312:145-55.
Izawa T, Takenaka S, Ihara H, Kotani T, Yamate J, Franklin RJ, Kuwamura M. Cellular responses in the spinal cord during development of hypomyelination in the mv rat. Brain Res. 2008 Feb 21;1195:120-9.
* Tokuda S, Kuramoto T, Serikawa, T. PCR-based genotyping of the rat Atrn<mv> mutation. Exp Anim 53(1): 73-76, 2004.
* Kuwamura M, Maeda M, Kuramoto T, Kitada K, Kanehara T, Moriyama M, Nakane Y, Yamate J, Ushijima T, Kotani T, Serikawa T. The myelin vacuolation (mv) rat with a null mutation in the attractin gene. Lab Invest. 2002 Oct;82(10):1279-86. |