Journal
HUMAN MOLECULAR GENETICS
Volume 19, Issue 20, Pages 3983-3994Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/hmg/ddq313
Keywords
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Funding
- National Institutes of Health [AG019206, NS041669, NS045016, AG031153]
- National High Technology Research and Development Program of China [2006AA02A103]
- National 973 Program of China [2009CB941001]
- Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, China [9251066302000001, 8451066 302001811]
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Neurodegeneration is a hallmark of many neurological diseases, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and the polyglutamine diseases, which are all caused by misfolded proteins that accumulate in neuronal cells of the brain. Although apoptosis is believed to contribute to neurodegeneration in these cases, genetic mouse models of these diseases often fail to replicate apoptosis and overt neurodegeneration in the brain. Using nuclear transfer, we generated transgenic Huntington's disease (HD) pigs that express N-terminal (208 amino acids) mutant huntingtin with an expanded polyglutamine tract (105Q). Postnatal death, dyskinesia and chorea-like movement were observed in some transgenic pigs that express mutant huntingtin. Importantly, the transgenic HD pigs, unlike mice expressing the same transgene, displayed typical apoptotic neurons with DNA fragmentation in their brains. Also, expression of mutant huntingtin resulted in more neurons with activated caspase-3 in transgenic pig brains than that in transgenic mouse brains. Our findings suggest that species differences determine neuropathology and underscore the importance of large mammalian animals for modeling neurological disorders.
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