Suitability of tamoxifen-induced mutagenesis for behavioral phenotyping

Exp Neurol. 2008 May;211(1):25-33. doi: 10.1016/j.expneurol.2007.12.012. Epub 2007 Dec 23.

Abstract

Tamoxifen-induced mutagenesis via the so-called CreER(T2) fusion enzyme is a key technology for the inducible gene knockout in the adult murine brain. However, it requires a subchronic transient treatment with high doses of the non-selective estrogen receptor antagonist tamoxifen. It has been shown earlier that acute tamoxifen treatment causes behavioral alterations, while the long-term behavioral effects of tamoxifen in mice are so far unknown. Therefore C57BL/6 male mice, a common strain used for targeted mutagenesis and behavioral analyses, were subjected to a tamoxifen treatment protocol as used for inducible mutagenesis in vivo, and analyzed for effects on general behavior (locomotion, exploration), emotional behavior (anxiety, depression) and on learning and memory after a drug-free interval period of 4 weeks. The results demonstrate that a test for depression-like behavior, i.e. the Forced Swim Test, is affected even more than 4 weeks after tamoxifen treatment. In contrast, in all other tests, tamoxifen treated mice showed unaltered behaviors, indicating that the currently established 5-day protocol of tamoxifen treatment (40 mg/kg bid) for inducible mutagenesis has no or little effects on the behavior of C57BL/6 male mice after a latency period of 4 weeks. These results are important for all studies using tamoxifen-induced mutagenesis since this protocol obviously does not evoke alterations in general behaviors such as locomotion, exploration or anxiety-like behaviors, which might confound more complex behavioral analyses, nor does it affect standard tests for learning and memory, such as Morris Water Maze, contextual and cued Fear Conditioning and T-Maze learning.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Analysis of Variance
  • Animals
  • Anxiety / drug therapy
  • Anxiety / etiology
  • Behavior, Animal / drug effects*
  • Body Weight / drug effects
  • Conditioning, Psychological / drug effects
  • Estrogen Antagonists / pharmacology*
  • Exploratory Behavior / drug effects
  • Fear / drug effects
  • Male
  • Maze Learning / drug effects
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Mutagenesis / drug effects*
  • Mutagenesis / physiology
  • Phenotype*
  • Reaction Time / drug effects
  • Swimming
  • Tamoxifen / pharmacology*

Substances

  • Estrogen Antagonists
  • Tamoxifen