Wfs1-deficient animals have brain-region-specific changes of Na+, K+-ATPase activity and mRNA expression of α1 and β1 subunits.

Mutations in the WFS1 gene, which encodes the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) glycoprotein, cause Wolfram syndrome, a disease characterized by juvenile-onset diabetes mellitus, optic atrophy, deafness, and different psychiatric abnormalities. Loss of neuronal cells and pancreatic β-cells in Wolfram syndrome patients is probably related to the dysfunction of ER stress regulation, which leads to cell apoptosis. The present study shows that Wfs1-deficient mice have brain-region-specific changes in Na(+),K(+)-ATPase activity and in the expression of the α1 and β1 subunits. We found a significant (1.6-fold) increase of Na-pump activity and β1 subunit mRNA expression in mice lacking the Wfs1 gene in the temporal lobe compared with their wild-type littermates. By contrast, exposure of mice to the elevated plus maze (EPM) model of anxiety decreased Na-pump activity 1.3-fold in the midbrain and dorsal striatum and 2.0-fold in the ventral striatum of homozygous animals compared with the nonexposed group. Na-pump α1 -subunit mRNA was significantly decreased in the dorsal striatum and midbrain of Wfs1-deficient homozygous animals compared with wild-type littermates. In the temporal lobe, an increase in the activity of the Na-pump is probably related to increased anxiety established in Wfs1-deficient mice, whereas the blunted dopamine function in the forebrain of Wfs1-deficient mice may be associated with a decrease of Na-pump activity in the dorsal and ventral striatum and in the midbrain after exposure to the EPM.