PMID- 18557922
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20081009
LR  - 20220410
IS  - 1460-9568 (Electronic)
IS  - 0953-816X (Linking)
VI  - 27
IP  - 12
DP  - 2008 Jun
TI  - Environmental enrichment ameliorates a motor coordination deficit in a mouse 
      model of Rett syndrome--Mecp2 gene dosage effects and BDNF expression.
PG  - 3342-50
LID - 10.1111/j.1460-9568.2008.06305.x [doi]
AB  - Rett syndrome, commonly associated with mutations of the methyl CpG-binding 
      protein 2 (MECP2) gene, is characterised by an apparently normal early postnatal 
      development followed by deterioration of acquired cognitive and motor 
      coordination skills in early childhood. To evaluate whether environmental factors 
      may influence the disease outcome of Rett syndrome, we tested the effect of 
      environmental enrichment from 4 weeks of age on the behavioural competence of 
      mutant mice harboring a Mecp2 (tm1Tam)-null allele. Our findings show that 
      enrichment improves motor coordination in heterozygous Mecp2+/- females but not 
      Mecp2-/y males. Standard-housed Mecp2+/- mice had an initial motor coordination 
      deficit on the accelerating rotarod, which improved with training then 
      deteriorated in subsequent weeks. Enrichment resulted in a significant reduction 
      in this coordination deficit in Mecp2+/- mice, returning the performance to 
      wild-type levels. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) protein levels were 75 
      and 85% of wild-type controls in standard-housed and environmentally enriched 
      Mecp2+/- cerebellum, respectively. Mecp2-/y mice showed identical deficits of 
      cerebellar BDNF (67% of wild-type controls) irrespective of their housing 
      environment. Our findings demonstrate a positive impact of environmental 
      enrichment in a Rett syndrome model; this impact may be dependent on the 
      existence of one functional copy of Mecp2.
FAU - Kondo, Mari
AU  - Kondo M
AD  - Howard Florey Institute and Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of 
      Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
FAU - Gray, Laura J
AU  - Gray LJ
FAU - Pelka, Gregory J
AU  - Pelka GJ
FAU - Christodoulou, John
AU  - Christodoulou J
FAU - Tam, Patrick P L
AU  - Tam PP
FAU - Hannan, Anthony J
AU  - Hannan AJ
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
DEP - 20080614
PL  - France
TA  - Eur J Neurosci
JT  - The European journal of neuroscience
JID - 8918110
RN  - 0 (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor)
RN  - 0 (Mecp2 protein, mouse)
RN  - 0 (Methyl-CpG-Binding Protein 2)
SB  - IM
MH  - Animals
MH  - Behavior, Animal/physiology
MH  - Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor/*metabolism
MH  - Cerebellum/physiology
MH  - Cerebral Cortex/physiology
MH  - Conditioning, Psychological/physiology
MH  - Corpus Striatum/physiology
MH  - Disease Models, Animal
MH  - *Environment
MH  - Female
MH  - Gene Dosage
MH  - Hippocampus/physiology
MH  - Male
MH  - Methyl-CpG-Binding Protein 2/*genetics/metabolism
MH  - Mice
MH  - Mice, Inbred C57BL
MH  - Mice, Mutant Strains
MH  - Motor Activity/*physiology
MH  - Neuronal Plasticity/physiology
MH  - *Rett Syndrome/genetics/physiopathology/therapy
EDAT- 2008/06/19 09:00
MHDA- 2008/10/10 09:00
CRDT- 2008/06/19 09:00
PHST- 2008/06/19 09:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2008/10/10 09:00 [medline]
PHST- 2008/06/19 09:00 [entrez]
AID - EJN6305 [pii]
AID - 10.1111/j.1460-9568.2008.06305.x [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Eur J Neurosci. 2008 Jun;27(12):3342-50. doi: 10.1111/j.1460-9568.2008.06305.x. 
      Epub 2008 Jun 14.