Gait analyses in mice: Effects of age and glutathione deficiency

J. Thomas Mock, Sherilynn G. Knight, Philip H. Vann, Jessica M. Wong, Delaney L. Davis, Michael J. Forster, Nathalie Sumien

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

Minor changes (~0.1 m/s) in human gait speed are predictive of various measures of decline and can be used to identify at-risk individuals prior to further decline. These associations are possible due to an abundance of human clinical research. However, age-related gait changes are not well defined in rodents, even though rodents are used as the primary pre-clinical model for many disease states as well as aging research. Our study investigated the usefulness of a novel automated system, the CatWalk™ XT, to measure age-related differences in gait. Furthermore, age-related functional declines have been associated with decreases in the reduced to oxidized glutathione ratio leading to a pro-oxidizing cellular shift. Therefore the secondary aim of this study was to determine whether chronic glutathione deficiency led to exacerbated age-associated impairments. Groups of male and female wild-type (gclm+/+) and knock-out (gclm-/-) mice aged 4, 10 and 17 months were tested on the CatWalk and gait measurements recorded. Similar age-related declines in all measures of gait were observed in both males and females, and chronic glutathione depletion was associated with some delays in age-related declines, which were further exacerbated. In conclusion, the CatWalk is a useful tool to assess gait changes with age, and further studies will be required to identify the potential compensating mechanisms underlying the effects observed with the chronic glutathione depletion.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)634-646
Number of pages13
JournalAging and Disease
Volume9
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2018

Keywords

  • Aging
  • Catwalk
  • Gait
  • Glutathione deficiency
  • Speed

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