Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 Feb 2;217(1):81-7.
doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2010.09.030. Epub 2010 Oct 7.

Behavioral characterization of a mutant mouse strain lacking D-amino acid oxidase activity

Affiliations

Behavioral characterization of a mutant mouse strain lacking D-amino acid oxidase activity

Min Zhang et al. Behav Brain Res. .

Abstract

D-amino acid oxidase (DAO), an enzyme that degrades d-serine, has been suggested as a susceptibility factor for schizophrenia. Here we sought to understand more about the behavioral consequence of lacking DAO and the potential therapeutic implication of DAO inhibition by characterizing a mouse strain (ddY/DAO(-)) lacking DAO activity. We found that the mutant mice showed enhanced prepulse inhibition responses (PPI). Intriguingly, DAO-/- mice had increased sensitivity to the PPI-disruptive effect induced by the competitive NMDA antagonist, SDZ 220-581. In the 24-h inhibitory avoidance test, DAO-/- mice were not different from DAO+/+ mice during the recall. In Barnes Maze, we found that DAO-/- mice had a shortened latency to enter the escape tunnel. Interestingly, although these mice were hypoactive when tested in a protected open field, they showed a profound increase of activity on the edge of the unprotected open field of the Barnes Maze even with the escape tunnel removed. This increased edge activity does not appear to be related to a reduced level of anxiety given that there were no significant genotype effects on the measures of anxiety-like behaviors in two standard animal models of anxiety, elevated plus maze and novelty suppressed feeding. Our data suggest that DAO-/- mice might have altered functioning of NMDARs. However, these results provide only modest support for manipulations of DAO activity as a potential therapeutic approach to treat schizophrenia.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

Cited by

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

LinkOut - more resources