Generation and behavioral characterization of β-catenin forebrain-specific conditional knock-out mice

The canonical Wnt pathway and β-catenin have been implicated in the pathophysiology of mood disorders. We generated forebrain-specific CRE-mediated conditional β-catenin knock-out mice to begin exploring the behavioral implications of decreased Wnt pathway signaling in the central nervous system. In situ hybridization revealed a progressive knock-out of β-catenin that began between 2 and 4 weeks of age, and by 12 weeks resulted in considerably decreased β-catenin expression in regions of the forebrain, including the frontal cortex, hippocampus, and striatum. A significant decrease in protein levels of β-catenin in these brain regions was observed by Western blot. Behavioral characterization of these mice in several tests (including the forced swim test, tail suspension test (TST), learned helplessness, response and sensitization to stimulants, and light/dark box among other tests) revealed relatively circumscribed alterations. In the TST, knock-out mice spent significantly less time struggling (a depression-like phenotype). However, knock-out mice did not differ from their wild-type littermates in the other behavioral tests of mood-related or anxiety-related behaviors. These results suggest that a 60–70% β-catenin reduction in circumscribed brain regions is only capable of inducing subtle behavioral changes. Alternatively, regulating β-catenin may modulate drug effects rather than being a model of mood disorder pathophysiology per se.