Mice Bred to Be Nervous May Offer Clues About Anxiety in People

A strain of mice genetically bred to be nervous has been developed by a researcher who hopes the reticent rodents can provide answers about human anxiety. Dr. Laurence Tecott of UC San Francisco created the anxious mice by blocking a gene for a specific serotonin receptor called 5HT-1A.

Serotonin, a protein that serves as a neurotransmitter in the brain, has been found to affect anxiety, depression and eating behavior in animals and humans. Serotonin receptors hold the serotonin protein on different cells and allow them to communicate with one another. But scientists have found so many serotonin receptors in the brain--14 at last count--that they are trying to figure out what role each of the receptors plays in regulating behavior and emotion.

“We want to develop a mouse psychiatry,” Tecott said. His mice are skittish, nervous and reticent, a perfect model of the kind of human anxiety that plagues millions.

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Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II