Delaying the onset of Huntington's in mice

It is shown that exposure of these mice to a stimulating, enriched environment from an early age helps to prevent the loss of cerebral volume and delays the onset of motor disorders.

Abstract

This unremitting disease develops later in animals stimulated by their environment. Huntington's disease is an inherited (autosomal dominant) disorder in which there is progressive neurodegeneration, affecting the corpus striatum and cerebral cortex of the brain, and for which there is no known cure. Transgenic mice have been created1,2 that develop a neurodegenerative syndrome that closely models the human disease. Here we show that exposure of these mice to a stimulating, enriched environment from an early age helps to prevent the loss of cerebral volume and delays the onset of motor disorders.