Motor and cognitive deficits in aged tau knockout mice in two background strains

Abstract

Background: We recently reported that Parkinsonian and dementia phenotypes emerge between 7-12 months of age in tau-/-mice on a Bl6/129sv mixed background. These observations were partially replicated by another group using pure Bl6 background tau-/-mice, but notably they did not observe a cognitive phenotype. A third group using Bl6 background tau-/-mice found cognitive impairment at 20-months of age. Results: To reconcile the observations, here we considered the genetic, dietary and environmental variables in both studies, and performed an extended set of behavioral studies on 12-month old tau+/+, tau+/-, and tau-/-mice comparing Bl6/129sv to Bl6 backgrounds. We found that tau-/-in both ba..