older mice in Hartman’s study), which are in support of the antagonistic pleiotropy that has been associated with APOE4 expression. While our analyses did not reveal any interactions of Sex and Treatment on any of the measures presented, we conducted full analyses including Sex as a factor. The resulting analyses did not show any interaction of Sex with Strain, supporting that the performance of each strain on the behavioral tests was not influenced by the sex of the mice. This was in contradiction with previous Duvelisib clinical trial reports that clearly indicated a further impairment
in APOE4 females when compared to APOE4 males. 12 It is noteworthy that these studies showing impairments were done in a different model expressing human APOE
isoforms Autophagy Compound Library 12 or in mice that were relatively older. 2 Furthermore, epidemiological studies looking at the association between APOE4 and AD risk or cognitive declines have been done in relatively old populations and have also demonstrated that age is an influencing factor. For example, a study by Qiu et al. 59 has identified a strong association between APOE4 and AD risk that was stronger in men than in women. Despite a lack of sex interaction in these young adult mice, it is noteworthy that the females and males responded to the same extent to the Treatment and that sex was not a driving factor of the observed treatment effects. The APOE4 mice also exhibited another interesting and unexpected behavior in this study. Interestingly, Thalidomide the APOE4 mice had higher swimming speed in the hidden and visible platform tests. Even though this observation could be a sign of higher motivation,
it did not translate to an improvement in spatial learning and memory. Furthermore, the lack of an effect of Strain or Treatment on the visible platform phase indicated that motivation was not a factor influencing the performance of the mice. While other studies in humans have reported hyperactivity being associated with the presence of APOE4, 60 the mice in our study did not exhibit increased locomotion or exploration during open field test or elevated plus maze (data not shown). Other studies have actually reported decreased locomotor activity in APOE4-TR mice 61 and even slower swimming speed in the MWM. 62 The APOE4 swimming speed was also higher during the visible platform phase of the swim maze. Vitamin E is transported via the same transporter as APOE which is defective in APOE4 mice, therefore vitamin E levels should be lower in APOE4 mice compared to APOE3 ones. Antioxidant intake has been associated in some instances with increased swimming speed and spontaneous activity, 63 and with hyperactivity. 64 Though the mechanisms by which antioxidants may affect hyperactivity remain unknown, there seemed to be a definite influence.