Research

Comprehensive behavioral phenotyping of calpastatin-knockout mice

Ryuichi Nakajima^1,5 , Keizo Takao^2,3,4 , Shu-Ming Huang^1,6 , Jiro Takano¹ , Nobuhisa Iwata¹ , Tsuyoshi Miyakawa^2,3,4 and Takaomi C Saido¹

¹Laboratory for Proteolytic Neuroscience, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Saitama, Japan

²Genetic Engineering and Functional Genomics Group, Frontier Technology Center, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

³Division of Systems Medicine, Institute for Comprehensive Medical Science, Fujita Health University, Toyoake, Japan

⁴JST, CREST, Hon-chou, Kawaguchi, Saitama, Japan

⁵Current Address: Department of Physiology & Biophysics, Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

⁶Current Address: Department of Neuroscience, Institute for Chinese Medicine, Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin, PR China

author email corresponding author email

Molecular Brain 2008, 1:7doi:10.1186/1756-6606-1-7

Published:	15 September 2008

Abstract

Background

Calpastatin is an endogenous inhibitor of calpain, intracellular calcium-activated protease. It has been suggested to be involved in molecular mechanisms of long-term plasticity and excitotoxic pathways. However, functions of calpastatin in vivo are still largely unknown. To examine the physiological roles of calpastatin, we subjected calpastatin-knockout mice to a comprehensive behavioral test battery.

Results

Calpastatin-knockout mice showed decreased locomotor activity under stressful environments, and decreased acoustic startle response, but we observed no significant change in hippocampus-dependent memory function.

Conclusion

These results suggest that calpastatin is likely to be more closely associated with affective rather than cognitive aspects of brain function.