Assessing disease onset and progression in the SODI mouse model of ALS

SODI transgenic mice are the most widely used animal model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In addition to providing valuable insights into the pathogenesis of ALS, these animals are used intensively in many laboratories as an in vivo model for investigating novel therapeutic interventions towards this devastating motor-neuron disease. Such pre-clinical studies require objective and reliable quantification of the clinical phenotype of individual mice, most importantly of the neuromuscular abnormalities. Here we compare four parameters of the clinical phenotype: motor signs, body weight, rotarod performance and paw grip endurance for their usefulness in monitoring the SODI mouse model. We found that paw grip endurance is a sensitive and inexpensive alternative to the widely used rotarod test.