Transient cerebellar alterations during development prior to obvious motor phenotype in a mouse model of spinocerebellar ataxia type 6.

KEY POINTS

Spinocerebellar ataxia type 6 (SCA6) is a midlife-onset neurodegenerative disease caused by a CACNA1A mutation; CACNA1A is also implicated in cerebellar development. We have previously shown that when disease symptoms are present in midlife in SCA6 mice, cerebellar Purkinje cells spike with reduced rate and precision. In contrast, we find that during postnatal development (P10-13), SCA6 Purkinje cells spike with elevated rate and precision. Although surplus climbing fibres are linked to ataxia in other mouse models, we found surplus climbing fibre inputs on developing (P10-13) SCA6 Purkinje cells when motor deficits were not detected. Developmental alterations were transient and were no longer observed in weanling (P21-24) SCA6 Purkinje cells. Our results suggest that changes in the developing cerebellar circuit can occur without detectable motor abnormalities, and that changes in cerebellar development may not necessarily persist into adulthood.

ABSTRACT

Although some neurodegenerative diseases are caused by mutations in genes that are known to regulate neuronal development, surprisingly, patients may not present disease symptoms until adulthood. Spinocerebellar ataxia type 6 (SCA6) is one such midlife-onset disorder in which the mutated gene, CACNA1A, is implicated in cerebellar development. We wondered whether changes were observed in the developing cerebellum in SCA6 prior to the detection of motor deficits. To address this question, we used a transgenic mouse with a hyper-expanded triplet repeat (SCA6 ) that displays late-onset motor deficits at 7 months, and measured cerebellar Purkinje cell synaptic and intrinsic properties during postnatal development. We found that firing rate and precision were enhanced during postnatal development in P10-13 SCA6 Purkinje cells, and observed surplus multiple climbing fibre innervation without changes in inhibitory input or dendritic structure during development. Although excess multiple climbing fibre innervation has been associated with ataxic symptoms in several adult transgenic mice, we observed no detectable changes in cerebellar-related motor behaviour in developing SCA6 mice. Interestingly, we found that developmental alterations were transient, as both Purkinje cell firing properties and climbing fibre innervation from weanling-aged (P21-24) SCA6 mice were indistinguishable from litter-matched control mice. Our results demonstrate that significant alterations in neuronal circuit development may be observed without any detectable behavioural read-out, and that early changes in brain development may not necessarily persist into adulthood in midlife-onset diseases.