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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Jan 1.
Published in final edited form as: J Huntingtons Dis. 2015;4(1):17–36.

Fig. 3.

Fig. 3

Behavioral abnormalities in BAC-225Q mice. (A) Motor performance was evaluated using accelerating rotarod in 3- to 15-month-old males (n=9–10). Performance of BAC-225Q animals is impaired relative to WT littermates starting from 3 months of age (*t-test, p<0.05). Unexpectedly, this impairment is absent in the aged mice, at 12 and 15 months, and at the earlier time points, between 3rd and 9th month, the rotarod performance deficiency, though present, is not progressive. These observations are confirmed by ANOVA that identifies effect of genotype (F(1,170)=44.744, p<0.001), but not effect of age or genotype-age interaction. (B) Since the rotarod deficit was identified at the earliest examined time point, 3 months of age, another cohort of animals was assessed from 1.5 to 2.5 months (n=9–13). Of the three examined time points, statistically significant difference between BAC-225Q and WT mice is found only at 2 months of age (*t-test, p=0.021), however two-way ANOVA reveals strong effect of genotype on rotarod performance between 1.5 and 2.5 months (F(1,66)=8.048, p=0.006). (C–F) Early hyperactive behavior followed by normalization of the symptoms in BAC-225Q mice. Spontaneous locomotor activity of 3- to 12-month-old mice was examined in open field test (n=16–27). At 3 months of age, (C) longer distance travelled (*t-test, p=0.42) as well as (D) increased vertical counts (*t-test, p=0.023), (E) jump counts (*t-test, p=0.023), and (F) average velocity (*t-test, p=0.022) are observed in BAC-225Q animals compared to WT littermates. These alterations, except (F) average velocity at 6 and 9 months of age (*t-test, p=0.12, p<0.001, respectively) are not found in the later time points. Two-way multivariate ANOVA reveals effect of age on total distance travelled (F(3,151)=10.015, p<0.001), vertical counts (F(3,151)=5.454, p=0.001), jump counts (F(3,151)=13.939, p<0.001), and average velocity (F(1,151)=20.099, p<0.001). Effect of genotype is found for vertical counts (F(1,151)=8.964, p=0.003) and average velocity (F(3,151)=3.356, p=0.021).