Mouse models of neurological disorders--a comparison of heritable and acquired traits

Human neurological disorders include a wide range of illnesses which have a disproportionately high prevalence in the increasingly populous geriatric community. Any research effort directed at discovering the aetiology of neurological disease is greatly enhanced with in vivo models of the disease of interest. Scientific research incorporating the use of mice has advanced rapidly in the last three decades. Relatively simple to breed, maintain and train, mice have many advantages over other species for use in research. More than a century of selective breeding has provided investigators with a rich gene pool and sub-strain diversity from which to choose for their research. Thus the dramatic increase in genetic screening and gene engineering that has occurred in research in recent decades has enabled the generation of a multitude of mouse models. This review discusses the relative utility of mouse models in which a heritable or non-heritable (acquired) manipulation has been used to model a specified trait of a human neurological disorder. The techniques used in deriving useful genetic alterations or modifications and in generating acquired mouse models are outlined with examples of each provided.