Behavioral Stress Fails to Accelerate the Onset and Progression of Plaque Pathology in the Brain of a Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease

Abstract

Conflicting findings exist regarding the link between environmental factors and development of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in a variety of transgenic mouse models of AD. In the present study, we investigated the effect of behavioral stress on the onset and progression of Aβ pathology in the brains of TgCRND8 mice, a transgenic mouse model of AD. One group of TgCRND8 mice was subjected to restraint stress starting at 1 month of age until they were 3 months old, while restraint stress in the second group started at 4 months of age until they were 6 months old. After 2 months of treatment, no differences in the soluble, formic acid extracted, or histologically detected Aβ deposition in the cortical and hippocampal levels were found between non-stressed and stressed mice. These results showed that restraint stress alone failed to aggravate amyloid pathology when initiated either before or after the age of amyloid plaque deposition in TgCRND8 mice, suggesting that if stress aggravated AD phenotype, it may not be via an amyloid-related mechanism in the TgCRND8 mice. These findings are indicative that plaque load per se may not be used as a significant criterion for evaluating the effect of stress on AD patients.

Heterozygous mice deficient in Atp1a3 exhibit motor deficits by chronic restraint stress

“…It is reported that the struggling of mice during restraint provided increased physical activity [50]. It is possible that chronic restraint stress may result in increased physical activity judged by the longer hanging time in stressed male wild-type mice, when compared with non-stressed male mice.…”

Amyloid Pathology in Spinal Cord of the Transgenic Alzheimer's Disease Mice is Correlated to the Corticospinal Tract Pathway

“…Sandwich A␤ ELISA assay was performed as described in our previous studies [26,27]. Spinal cord at the cervical level of TgCRND8 mice was homogenized in Tris-buffered saline (20 mM Tris and 137 mM NaCl, pH 7.6) supplemented with 1% protease inhibitor cocktail (Sigma).…”

Chronic stress induces NPD‐like behavior in APPPS1 and WT mice with subtle differences in gene expression

“…Another explanation might be that NPD‐like behavior needs to be present for a longer period in order to affect plaque pathology. One research group found that chronic stress accelerated Aβ pathology in the Tg2576 model, 74 while another group failed to show this effect in the TgCRND8 model 75 …”

“…One research group found that chronic stress accelerated Aβ pathology in the Tg2576 model, 74 while another group failed to show this effect in the TgCRND8 model. 75 …”