Aging, motor function, and sensitivity to calcium channel blockers: An investigation using chronic methylmercury exposure

• Two age groups of mice were chronically exposed to MeHg and nimodipine for 8.5 months.
• MeHg produced age-independent effects on wheel-running and rotarod performance.
• MeHg run decreased distance and speed of wheel-running but not the motivation to run.
• Nimodipine provided age-dependent protection from MeHg insult.
• Event analysis detected reliable indicators of MeHg toxicity.

Methylmercury (MeHg) neurotoxicity is thought to be mediated, in part, by dysregulation of calcium (Ca2+) homeostasis, a mechanism that may also slowly and progressively degrade neuronal function during normal aging. Longitudinal studies of MeHg exposure provide a powerful approach to studying neural and behavioral mechanisms by which both MeHg toxicity and aging affect motor function. Wheel-running and rotarod performance were assessed in two age groups of BALB/c mice chronically exposed to 0 or 1.2 mg/kg/day MeHg and 0 or 20 mg/kg/day nimodipine, a 1,4-dihyrdopyridine L-type calcium channel blocker (CCB), for approximately 8.5 months. Adults began exposure on postnatal day (PND) 72 and retired breeders on PND 296. A log-survivor bout analysis partitioned wheel-running into bouts that identified motor (within-bout rates) and motivational (bout-initiation rates) influences. Retired breeders ran farther, because of a higher bout-initiation rates, but performed more poorly on the rotarod than younger adults, a difference unaffected by nimodipine. MeHg produced relatively age-independent deficits in wheel-running and rotarod performance, whereas nimodipine afforded greater protection to adult mice than to retired breeders. Rotarod performance and within-bout response rate were more sensitive to and more reliable predictors of MeHg toxicity than bout-initiation rate, which was least affected by MeHg exposure. Thus the motivation to run was unimpaired as the ability to do so declined. While chronic MeHg exposure produced functionally similar behavior deficits between age groups, the age-dependent neuroprotection by nimodipine supports the notion that underlying neurobiological systems mediated by Ca2+ signaling, are differentially affected in older adults.