Wheel running and environmental enrichment differentially modify exon-specific BDNF expression in the hippocampus of wild-type and pre-motor symptomatic male and female Huntington's disease mice

Abstract

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is an essential neurotrophin and regulation of its expression is complex due to multiple 5′ untranslated exons which are separately spliced to a common coding exon to form unique mRNA transcripts. Disruption of BDNF gene expression is a key to the development of symptoms in Huntington's disease (HD), a fatal neurodegenerative condition. Abnormal epigenetic modifications are associated with reduced gene expression in late-stage HD but such regulation of BDNF gene expression has yet to be investigated. We hypothesized that BDNF gene expression is altered in the HD hippocampus of pre-motor symptomatic R6/1 transgenic HD mice, correlating with a change in..