Date of Graduation

Fall 2014

Degree

Master of Science in Cell and Molecular Biology

Department

Biomedical Sciences

Committee Chair

Scott Zimmerman

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive, fatal neurodegenerative disorder characterized by amyloid beta (Aβ) plaques and tau tangles in the brain with resulting cognitive and psychomotor deficits. Preliminary data indicate that running economy (relative oxygen consumption, VO2, comparison over a range of speeds) may be affected by AD. Tg2576 mice and wild type controls (n=58) were used to study resting oxygen consumption (VO2) for baseline comparisons, running economy, and peak VO2 for exercise capacity comparisons. The hypothesis for this project was that as the transgenic mice aged and AD pathology began, economy would be worse. The relative resting VO2 was unchanged in young mice, but significantly different in old mice, the wild type mice having VO2 of 9.0 mL O2/kg/min and the transgenic having VO2 of 24.9 mL O2/kg/min (p<0.001). Running economy was also significantly worse in the old transgenic mice with average VO2 of 110.8 and 115.2 mL O2/kg/min at 12 and 16 m/min respectively, compared to wild type averages of 94.3 and 99.9 mL O2/kg/min (p<0.005). Relative peak VO2 was unchanged between old groups (p=0.115). Changes in running economy seem to be secondary to Aβ pathology in the primary motor cortex, represented on histological slides. These results are important as resting, submaximal, and peak VO2 have not been previously characterized in an AD mouse model or human AD subjects.

Keywords

Alzheimer's, Tg2576, VO2peak, running economy, resting VO2, exercise, exercise capacity

Subject Categories

Medical Molecular Biology

Copyright

© Monica Nicole Goodland

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