Deficiency of Vlgr1 resulted in deafness and susceptibility to audiogenic seizures while the degree of hearing impairment was not correlated with seizure severity in C57BL/6- and 129-backcrossed lines of Vlgr1 knockout mice

Neurosci Lett. 2009 Sep 18;461(2):190-5. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2009.06.012. Epub 2009 Jun 17.

Abstract

Vlgr1 (very large G-protein coupled receptor 1) knockout mice against hybrid backgrounds of the 129/Ola and C57BL/6 mouse strains show hearing deficit and high susceptibility to audiogenic seizures. The present study examined how hearing impairment and susceptibility to audiogenic seizures in Vlgr1-deficient mice change according to the genetic background of 129 and C57BL/6 mouse strains, which are popular strains for genetic studies. C57BL/6 mice have normal hearing ability during adolescence and are resistant to audiogenic seizures, and the 129S1/SvImJ substrain does not have a severe hearing deficit or convulsions as a result of audiogenic seizures; therefore, these strains were chosen for the present backcross study. C57BL/6-backcrossed Vlgr1 knockout mice and 129 (129S1/SvImJ)-backcrossed Vlgr1 knockout mice were established and their phenotypes investigated. Vlgr1 knockout mice showed hearing loss and high susceptibility to audiogenic seizures regardless of their genetic backgrounds. 129-backcrossed Vlgr1 knockout mice exhibited 10-20dB more severe hearing loss than C57BL/6-backcrossed Vlgr1 knockout mice. In general, 129-backcrossed Vlgr1 knockout mice showed a higher incidence of wild running than C57BL/6-backcrossed Vlgr1 knockout mice, and this incidence became smaller as they matured. However, C57BL/6-backcrossed Vlgr1 knockout mice showed a significantly higher mortality rate as a result of auditory stimulation 3 weeks postnatally than 129-backcrossed mice.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Age Factors
  • Animals
  • Deafness / genetics
  • Epilepsy, Reflex / genetics*
  • Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem
  • Genetic Predisposition to Disease
  • Hearing Loss / genetics*
  • Inbreeding
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Mice, Knockout
  • Mutation
  • Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled / genetics*
  • Seizures / genetics*

Substances

  • Mass1 protein, mouse
  • Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled