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Sex effects in mouse prion disease incubation time.

Akhtar, S; Wenborn, A; Brandner, S; Collinge, J; Lloyd, SE; (2011) Sex effects in mouse prion disease incubation time. PLOS One , 6 (12) , Article e28741. 10.1371/journal.pone.0028741. Green open access

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Abstract

Prion disease incubation time in mice is determined by many factors including PrP expression level, Prnp alleles, genetic background, prion strain and route of inoculation. Sex differences have been described in age of onset for vCJD and in disease duration for both vCJD and sporadic CJD and have also been shown in experimental models. The sex effects reported for mouse incubation times are often contradictory and detail only one strain of mice or prions, resulting in broad generalisations and a confusing picture. To clarify the effect of sex on prion disease incubation time in mice we have compared male and female transmission data from twelve different inbred lines of mice inoculated with at least two prion strains, representing both mouse-adapted scrapie and BSE. Our data show that sex can have a highly significant difference on incubation time. However, this is limited to particular mouse and prion strain combinations. No sex differences were seen in endogenous PrP(C) levels nor in the neuropathological markers of prion disease: PrP(Sc) distribution, spongiosis, neuronal loss and gliosis. These data suggest that when comparing incubation times between experimental groups, such as testing the effects of modifier genes or therapeutics, single sex groups should be used.

Type: Article
Title: Sex effects in mouse prion disease incubation time.
Location: United States
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0028741
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0028741
Language: English
Additional information: © 2011 Akhtar et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This work was funded by the Medical Research Council, UK. The funder had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.
Keywords: Animals, Blotting, Western, Brain, Female, Inbreeding, Male, Mice, Mice, Inbred C57BL, PrPSc Proteins, Prion Diseases, Sex Characteristics, Survival Analysis, Time Factors
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Institute of Prion Diseases
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Institute of Prion Diseases > MRC Prion Unit at UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology > Neurodegenerative Diseases
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1333687
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