Elsevier

Physiology & Behavior

Volume 66, Issue 4, June 1999, Pages 651-656
Physiology & Behavior

Articles
Age-Induced Cognitive Alterations in OF1 Mice

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0031-9384(99)00003-7Get rights and content

Abstract

Female OF1 mice aged 17–18 months were compared with female OF1 mice aged 7–11 weeks for locomotor activity, pain sensitivity, and cognitive performance using the Morris water maze, passive and active avoidance, and the elevated plus-maze learning protocol. Performance of old mice was impaired compared to those of young mice for both locomotor activity, pain sensitivity, and the four cognitive tests including the elevated plus-maze not previously used in studies on aging. Using complementary experiments and a detailed analysis of the results, we have shown that the reduction of learning and memory do not result from a decline of sensory and motor capacities. We conclude that female OF1 mice aged 17–18 months show true cognitive deficits.

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Animals

Young 7-week-old (31.5 ± 0.6 g) and old 17–18-month-old (49.5 ± 1.5 g) female OF1 mice from IFFA-CREDO (L’Arbresle, France) were used. The mice grew old in the animal room and were used from 17 months of age when mortality is 50% according to the survival curve. Mice were housed in group cages, six animals of the same age per cage, in an air-conditioned animal room illuminated from 0800–2000 h, and maintained at 21 ± 1°C. They were allowed ad lib access to standard lab diet and water.

Locomotor Activity

The number of photobeam breaks were recorded every 5 min for 60 min. Multivariate analysis of cumulative values for 60 min (Fig. 1A) showed an effect of time, F(11, 198) = 57.5, p < 0.0001, of age, F(1, 18) = 17.33, p < 0.001, and no significant time × age interaction, F(11, 198) = 0.77, p = 0.07. Old mice were less active than young mice.

The number of photobeam breaks was calculated for each 5-min period by subtracting the previous cumulative value (Fig. 1B). The comparison of scores between

Discussion

The present results show that in old OF1 female mice a reduced locomotion and learning/memory ability for each of the four tests used. These results, however, require detailed analysis because of possible bias due to an alteration in the motor or sensory abilities of old mice.

The locomotor activity of old mice was significantly reduced compared to that of young mice. This may reflect impaired physical capacity. Another explanation is that because scores were significantly different only at 5,

Acknowledgements

We thank Didier Fauconnier and Amhed Kébir for the maintenance of animals, and Alan Strickland for reviewing this manuscript. This work was supported by the Institut National de le Santé et de la Recherche Médicale.

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