Creeping: a new mutant rat with neurological disease

We describe a new mutant rat, named creeping, that exhibits severe ataxia characterized by a creeping posture due to the inability to stand up. Affected animals can be recognized at 14.8 +/- 1.6 (mean +/- SD) days of age and die within 35 days after birth. There are no sex differences in phenotype. The breeding data suggest that the abnormal locomotion is caused by an autosomal recessive gene. We have tentatively named the gene creeping (cre). The cerebellum of affected rats is much smaller than that of normal littermates. The cerebellar lobes of the mutant are barely formed. The notable histopathological changes are disarrangement of neuronal cells in the cerebellum and cerebral cortices, although the several cell types that are present in the cortices of normal rats are also found in the cortex of the creeping rats. The same type of change is also present in the hippocampus and fascia dentata.