【Animal modeling】-Effect of p53 knockout on neurobehavior and the number of neurons in barrel cortex in mice

  Objective To explore the role of p53 gene in neurobehavioral activity in mice and its effect on the number of neurons in barrel cortex.

  Methods Forty-five 8-12-week-old p53 knockout (KO) mice with C57BL/6 background were used as the experimental group, and 38 wild-type (WT) mice with the same age and background were used as the control group. Anxiety-like behavior, spontaneous movement, working memory and whisker sensitivity were tested by open field test, Y-maze test and texture discrimination test. The number of neurons in layer II/I of barrel cortex was observed by Nissl staining.

  Results Compared with WT mice, p53 knockout mice showed the activity time in the center of the open field (P>0.05), the total movement distance in the open field (P>0.05) and the rate of spontaneous alternation in the Y maze (P>0.05). There was no significant difference in the total number of times of entering the arm (P>0.05), but the exploration percentage of new texture targets was significantly reduced (P<0.01); the number of neurons in layers II/III of barrel cortex of p53 knockout mice It was significantly lower than that of wild-type mice (P<0.01).

  Conclusion The deletion of p53 gene does not cause anxiety-like behavior in mice, nor does it affect the ability of spontaneous movement and working memory, but it impairs the ability of mice to discriminate new textures, that is, the sensitivity of whiskers, which may be related to barrel cortex I/II. decrease in the number of neurons in the layer.