Spatial Learning of Mice Lacking a Neuron-Specific Epidermal Growth Factor Family Protein, NELL2
NELL2 is a neuron-specific thrombospondin-1-like extracellular protein containing six epidermal growth factor-like domains. We previously disrupted the NELL2 gene in mice by gene targeting and showed that long-term potentiation is enhanced in vivo in the dentate gyrus of NELL2-deficient mice. To fur...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Book |
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Elsevier,
2005-01-01T00:00:00Z.
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| Online Access: | Connect to this object online. |
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| Summary: | NELL2 is a neuron-specific thrombospondin-1-like extracellular protein containing six epidermal growth factor-like domains. We previously disrupted the NELL2 gene in mice by gene targeting and showed that long-term potentiation is enhanced in vivo in the dentate gyrus of NELL2-deficient mice. To further elucidate the physiological roles of NELL2, we performed a behavioral characterization of NELL2−/− and their heterozygous control mice. NELL2-deficient mice exhibited learning impairment in the Morris water maze task. However, we observed no difference in passive avoidance learning between NELL2−/− and NELL2+/− mice. These observations suggest that NELL2 plays an important role in hippocampus-dependent spatial learning and that emotional learning does not depend critically on NELL2. Keywords:: NELL2, epidermal growth factor, thrombospondin, hippocampus, spatial learning |
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| Item Description: | 1347-8613 10.1254/jphs.fp0050211 |