Cytoplasmic dynein could be key to understanding neurodegeneration

Table 1 Comparison of Loa/+, Cra1/+ and Swl/+ mice

	Loa/+ [1,13,20]	Cra1/+ [13]	Swl/+ [1]
Mutation	F580Y	Y1055C	[GIVT]1040 [A]
Lifespan	Normal	Normal	Normal
Progressive phenotype	Mildly	Mildly	No
Limb clenching	Yes	Yes	Yes
Gait abnormalities	Yes	Yes	Yes
Forelimb grip strength	Reduced	Unknown	Normal
Hindlimb grip strength	Reduced	Reduced	Reduced
Muscle pathology	Normal	Abnormal	Normal
Loss of muscle spindles	Yes	Unknown	Yes
Nociception	*	Unknown	No
Proprioception	Abnormal	Unknown	Abnormal
H reflex	Absent	Unknown	Absent
Loss of lumbar DRG neurons	Yes	Unknown	Yes
Loss of cervical DRG neurons	Mild^†	Unknown	No
Size of ventral root	Normal	Unknown	Normal
Size of dorsal root	Thin	Unknown	Thin
Diameter of sciatic nerve	Thin^‡	Unknown	Thin
Loss of alpha motor neurons in spinal cord	Mild	Mild	No
Attenuates SOD1^G93A	Yes	Yes	No

*Tendency to longer time in tail-flick test, but never shown to be statistically significant (Rogers D, EMCF, Martin JE, unpublished data). ^†Not statistically significant. ^‡(Bros V, EMCF and Greensmith L, unpublished data).

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