Anxiety-related behaviors in cholecystokinin-A, B, and AB receptor gene knockout mice in the plus-maze

Cholecystokinin (CCK)-A receptor (AR) and B receptor (BR) share highly amino acid sequence homology and overlap in their tissue distribution. We examined the anxiety-related behavior of CCK-AR, CCK-BR, and CCK-ARBR gene knockout (-/-) mice in the elevated plus-maze. CCK-AR(-/-) mice showed a significantly higher frequency of open-arm entries than wild-type and CCK-BR(-/-) mice, whereas the percentage open-arm entry values in CCK-AR(-/-) mice did not differ from those in wild-type mice. Thus, this increased frequency in open-arm entries for CCK-AR(-/-) mice was interpreted to be due to an increase in locomotor activity, rather than to a reduction in anxiety. By contrast, CCK-BR(-/-) mice showed significantly lower percentage open-arm entry values and spent significantly less time in the open- arms than wild-type and CCK-AR(-/-) mice. We therefore conclude that a lack of CCK-BR increases the anxiety-related behavior of the mouse in the elevated plus- maze.