Sugar and Mice

Mice are the most commonly used animal model for studying human disease due to their genetic similarities to humans and the ease of manipulating their genome. Although direct conclusions about humans can’t be drawn from the models, they're a useful tool. Researchers in Japan recently used a mouse model to study the effects of a high-sugar diet on psychiatric disorders, namely bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, in adolescents. Those mice who had certain susceptibility genes for psychiatric disorders and an excessive sugar intake displayed mental disorder-like symptoms, such as decreased working memory and hyperactivity. Accumulations of fibrin (shown in white), a substance essential for blood clotting, were also found in the blood vessels (the wishbone-like shape) in the mouses’ brains, indicating a problem. Continual use of low-dose aspirin prevented the development of severe disease.

Written by Katy Pallister

Katy Pallister

Writer

Katy is a freelance science educator, presenter, writer and producer based in London. She is a former Engagement and Events Officer at the MRC LMS.

• Image from work by Shinobu Hirai and colleagues
• Sleep Disorders Project, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science, Tokyo, Japan
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
• Published in Science Advances, November 2021