Rats with senile dementia

Scientists have bred rats with Alzheimer's diseaseABC Magazine based on Eurekalert materials: Alzheimer's rat created for human research
Scientists from McGill University, using genetic methods, have derived a line of rats suffering from Alzheimer's disease in order to use it to study this disease, which usually affects people.

In Alzheimer's disease, nerve cells of the brain are destroyed, which leads to chronic memory disorders and other brain functions. Although studies on mice are more accessible and widespread, rats have more intelligence than other rodents, their behavior is much more interesting and amenable to analysis. Thus, it is rats that scientists consider to be the ideal object for studying the disease leading to memory deficiency.

Now researchers hope to analyze and uncover the mechanisms of the so-called "hidden phase" of Alzheimer's disease, which is caused, as it is currently believed, by the accumulation of certain proteins in brain cells. It was possible to confirm this theory in mice, but in humans, the "hidden phase" goes through several stages, and it is rats that will allow them to simulate them in vivo.

Previously, a step-by-step study of the "hidden phase" was impossible, because people did not have such biochemical markers that would allow them to diagnose Alzheimer's disease at an early stage.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru31.03.2010