Abstract

Introduction

Materials & Methods

Results

Discussion & Conclusion

References

Discussion
Board

The WKHA is an inbred rat strain derived by phenotypic selection of descendants of SHR/WKY hybrid F2 crosses. A genetic characterization of the strain allowed us to verify that the strain was indeed truly inbred, that its genome corresponded to a true mix of the genomes of the 2 parental strains, and that it was 84% and 74% genetically related to WHY and SHR, respectively. We also performed behavioral evaluations of WKY, WKHA, and Wistar (WIS) rats. In an open-field forced exploration test (activity test), the scores for each strain were WKY < WKHA < WIS. Similarly, the relative amplitudes of the startle responses to an acoustic stimulus were WKY < WKHA < WIS. The relative amplitudes of the inhibition of the startle response by pre-exposure of the animals to a low-level acoustic cue (prepulse inhibition stimulus filtering test) were WKY < WKHA = WIS. Finally, methylphenidate did not decrease activity or improve prepulse inhibition in any of the strains. We conclude that: 1) the behavioral differences between WKY and WKHA can be more readily explained by deficits present in WKY than by unusual characteristics of WKHA, and 2) that the WKHA, despite its interesting genetic characteristics, does not appear to represent a useful model of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

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Presentation Number SAdeschepper0357
Keywords: attention deficit, rat model, genetics, behavior