Olfactory and vomeronasal epithelia in a transgenic BACHD rat model of Huntington´s disease

Fri-P2-115

Presented by: Nicole Power Guerra

Nicole Power Guerra ^{1, 2, 3}, Lina-Marielle Krysewski ¹, Annika Glatzel ¹, Carsten Holzmann ⁴, Veronica Antipova ^{1, 5}, Oliver Schmitt ^{1, 6}, Libo Yu-Taeger ⁷, Huu Phuc Nguyen ⁷, Andreas Wree ¹, Martin Witt ¹

¹ Department of Anatomy, Rostock University Medical Centre, 18057 Rostock, Germany, ² Rudolf-Zenker-Institute for Experimental Surgery, Rostock University Medical Centre, 18057 Rostock, Germany, ³ Smell and Taste Clinic, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, TU Dresden, 01034 Dresden, Germany, ⁴ Institute of Medical Genetics, Rostock University Medical Centre, 18057 Rostock, Germany, ⁵ Gottfried Schatz Research Center for Cell Signaling, Metabolism and Aging, Macroscopic and Clinical Anatomy, Medical University of Graz, 8010 Graz, Austria, ⁶ Department of Anatomy, Medical School Hamburg, 20457 Hamburg, Germany, ⁷ Department of Human Genetics, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44780 Bochum, Germany

Background. For neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington’s disease (HD), early diagnosis is essential to treat patients and delay symptoms. Impaired olfaction, as observed as an early symptom in Parkinson´s disease, may also constitute a key symptom in HD. However, there are few reports on olfactory deficits in HD. Therefore, we aimed to investigate in a transgenic rat model of HD 1) if there is a general olfactory impairment, and 2) if there exist disease-specific dynamics of olfactory dysfunction when vomeronasal (VNE) and main olfactory epithelium (MOE) are compared. Methods. We used male rats of the transgenic line 22 (TG22) of the bacterial artificial chromosome Huntington disease model (BACHD), aged 3 days or 6 months. Cell proliferation, apoptosis and macrophage activity were examined by immunohistochemistry in VNE and MOE. Results. No differences were observed in cellular parameters in the VNE between the groups. However, the MOE of the 6-month-old HD animals showed a significantly increased number of mature olfactory receptor neurons. Other cellular parameters were not affected. Conclusion. The results obtained in TG22 line suggest a relative stability of the VNE, whereas the MOE seems at least temporarily affected.