The effect of repeated rotarod training on motor skills and spatial learning ability in Lurcher mutant mice

Lurcher mutant mice represent a model of olivocerebellar degeneration. Due to loss of Purkinje cells, they suffer from functional cerebellar decortication resulting in ataxia and deterioration of cognitive functions. The aim of the work was to assess the effect of enforced physical activity represented by rotarod training on motor skills and spatial learning in young and adult B6CBA Lurcher mice. These functions were compared with those in untrained wild type mice of the same age. We examined motor skills using bar, ladder and rotarod tests. Spatial learning was tested in the Morris water maze. Motor skills of Lurchers were found to be worse than in wild type mice, but they showed motor learning in the course of training. The training did not significantly influence the results on the bar and ladder. In the rotarod test, young trained Lurchers achieved only slightly better results than untrained ones. In adult mice, the improvement was insignificant. Lurchers failed in spatial learning test compared to the wild type mice. In the wild type mice there was no difference in learning between young and adult individuals, while young Lurchers learned better than older ones. Enforced motor activity led to spatial learning improvement in older Lurchers, but not in young ones. The experiments showed that effects of enforced physical activity in Lurcher mice mitigated the deficit in the water maze task related to age so that trained older Lurchers showed as good performance as younger ones but still worse than the wild type mice.