Locomotor activity and behavior of mutant mice deleted for gastrin gene expression

The current studies were initiated to investigate the role of brain-gut peptide, gastrin, on locomotor activity and anxiety-like behavior. Young, male mutant mice, lacking gastrin gene expression (GAS-KO mice), were used in the experiments. The locomotor activity of GAS-KO vs wild type (WT) mice was compared by open field test. The anxiety-like behavior was examined using elevated plus maze. The time and entries to the open arms of the elevated plus maze were used as an indicator for the anxiety-like behavior and the data were analyzed using Hindsight program. On the open field test, locomotor activity of GAS-KO mice was similar to that of the WT mice for the first 10 min of the test, but decreased significantly after that. Anxiety-like behavior was more evident in the GAS-KO vs WT mice in the elevated plus maze experiments. The number of entries to and time spent on the open arms of plus-maze were significantly reduced for the GAS-KO vs WT mice suggesting an increased anxiety-like behavior of GAS-KO mice. Our studies suggest that normal circulating levels of gastrins may play a direct or indirect role in the regulation of locomotor activity and anxiety-like behavior.