探讨CPEB4基因剔除引起之小鼠嗅球发育异常对嗅觉功能的影响.PDF

探討CPEB4 基因剔除引起之小鼠嗅球發育異常 對嗅覺功能的影響 研究者 ：紀蓉、尚沂臻 指導者 ：孫譽真老師 黃怡萱老師 摘要 嗅覺是人體重要的感官之一，與人體健康有密切關係。嗅覺訊號會經由嗅神 經傳到嗅球處理。而CPEB4 缺失會使小鼠嗅球發育異常，尺寸較小 （unpublished data ），但目前尚未得知是否影響小鼠嗅覺表現。此次實驗目的在於，探討CPEB4 基因剔除引起之小鼠嗅球發育異常對嗅覺功能的影響。本研究使用 CPEB4 基因 剔除小鼠進行動物行為實驗，測試其嗅覺表現，行為實驗分為以下三種：嗅覺靈 敏度、嗅覺短期記憶和氣味辨別實驗。嗅覺靈敏度測驗中給予小鼠不同濃度的味 道，發現野生型與基因剔除小鼠小鼠在相同濃度下，嗅聞的時間相同。嗅覺短期 記憶實驗中，兩種小鼠在100 分鐘的間隔下仍然具有記憶，但間隔120 分鐘時都 喪失了記憶，顯示嗅覺短期記憶並無差別。而在氣味辨別實驗中，正常小鼠能分 辨出新舊兩種氣味的不同，相反的，CPEB4 基因剔除小鼠則喪失了辨別氣味的能 力。此外，我們發現年紀較長的CPEB4 基因剔除小鼠雖然嗅球大小已獲得補償， 但仍無法分辨新舊氣味，顯示 CPEB4 缺失導致的氣味辨別能力喪失並非因為嗅 球細胞數量較少，可能為早期生成的顆粒細胞的功能異常或神經迴路發育異常所 致。 Abstract Olfaction, which is one of the important sensations, allows us to distinguish various odorous molecules in the environment. Olfactory signals are relayed to the brain via olfactory nerves. The lack of CPEB4 leads to development of smaller olfactory bulbs. The aim of our experiments is to address whether the smaller olfactory bulbs affect specific olfactory functions in the CPEB4-deficient mice. Thus, three behavior tests were performed to compare sensitivity of odor, short-term olfactory memory, and odor discrimination between CPEB4-deficient mice and their wild-type littermates. To measure olfactory sensitivity, we tested mice with odorous solutions at different concentrations and found no obvious difference between both groups of mice. In the olfactory short-term memory test, both groups of mice remembered the odor given 100 minutes but not 120 minutes before, so both of them exhibited comparable short-term memory. In olfactory discrimination tasks, only the wild-type but not CPEB4-deficient mice were able to distinguish a novel odor from a familiar one. Additionally, 4-6 month-old CPEB4-deficient mice with normal olfactory bulb s