Neurodegenerative mouse strain discovered

Sometimes science works by chance.

In a mouse colony that we were breeding to study myeloproliferative disease, just by chance we had a few mice that just started shaking. Seizing the chance to study these further, we found out that our colony had generated a spontaneous mutation in the gene Mbp, a structural component of the insulating layer that keeps nerves insulated (in the same way that the plastic coating of metal wires is required for electricity cables). Without insulation of their nerves, the mice developed an erratic shaking and later on developed seizures. This work ended up revealing new aspects of the regulation of nerve insulation genes, and has been published in the journal Brain Research.

Read more: Staats, Pombal, Schönefeldt, Van Helleputte, Maurin, Dresselaers, Govaerts, Himmelreich, Van Leuven, Van Den Bosch, Dooley J, Humblet-Baron*, Liston*.Transcriptional upregulation of myelin components in spontaneous myelin basic protein-deficient mice. Brain Res. 2015 in press.