Date of Award

8-2025

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Biology

Program

Biology (MS)

First Advisor/Chairperson

Dr. Danny LeBert

Abstract

Brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a neurotrophin essential for supporting the growth, differentiation, and health of neurons within the central and peripheral nervous systems. BDNF is also a member of the myokine family, where muscle synthesized-BDNF (msBDNF) is thought to facilitate the crucial bi-directional communication between the motor neuron and the muscle fibers it innervates. Since 2008, the Ottem Laboratory has investigated the role of msBDNF by employing Cre/LoxP recombinase technology to selectively delete the BDNF coding region within skeletal muscle of mice. This approach generates animals with either heterozygous or homozygous deletions of msBDNF, as well as BDNF homozygous floxed mice (BDNFlox+/+). However, the laboratory has yet to validate that this deletion effectively reduces local BDNF protein within skeletal muscle. Additionally, prior preliminary behavioral characterizations of the BDNFlox+/+ mice demonstrated abnormalities in the forms of stereotypy behaviors, increased locomotor activity, limb clasping impairments, and increased pre-pulse inhibition (PPI), which may be explained by transcriptional interference induced by the introduction of the LoxP sites. This thesis evaluates both molecular and barbering-related behavioral effects of BDNF floxing in transgenic mice generated using HSA-Cre/LoxP technology. Molecular analysis revealed that mature BDNF protein in the muscle tissue was not significantly reduced in our knockouts, and was significantly elevated in the brain. Behavioral analysis of barbering failed to identify meaningful differences between BDNFlox+/+ mice and other transgenic lines when controlling for age and sex.

Access Type

Open Access

Additional Files
Asha Rustad (1).pdf (31 kB)
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