Decreased hippocampal cell proliferation in R6/1 Huntington's mice

In order to ascertain whether disturbances of neurogenesis occur in chronic neurodegenerative disorders, we assessed hippocampal cell proliferation in the R6/1 transgenic mouse model of Huntington's disease (HD). Using BrdU labelling for dividing cells at two different time points (5 and 20 weeks) in transgenic and wild type control mice, we have shown that cell proliferation in the hippocampus was similar in younger asymptomatic R6/1 mice and wild type controls, but that older R6/1 mice had significantly fewer BrdU(+) cells than controls. Such a decrease in cell proliferation may be relevant to some of the deficits seen in these mice, although further work is needed to prove this.