Balb/c mice treated with D-cycloserine arouse increased social interest in conspecifics

Abstract

The genetically inbred Balb/cJ (Balb/c) mouse with functional alteration of its endogenous tone of NMDA receptor-mediated neurotransmission displays impaired sociability in a standard paradigm; this mouse strain has been proposed as a model of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Prior work showed that treatment of the Balb/c mouse with a centrally effective dose of D-cycloserine, a partial glycineB NMDA receptor agonist, improved several measures of its sociability. Additionally, D-cycloserine-treated Balb/c mice show greater preference for a social stimulus mouse than an inanimate object. We wondered if treatment with D-cycloserine also improved the social salience of the Balb/c mouse for "normally" sociable comparator strains. The current experiments explored whether C57Bl/6J (B6) and ICR mouse strains prefer D-cycloserine-treated to vehicle-treated Balb/c stimulus mice in a paradigm that evaluated social preference. The results showed that B6 mice prefer D-cycloserine-treated Balb/c mice to vehicle-treated Balb/c mice, suggesting that treatment could have resulted in normalization of "emitted" social cues.

Keywords: Balb/c mouse; NMDA receptor; Sociability; Social preference; d-Cycloserine.