Behavior of mice differing by relative brain weight. High doses of memantine influence

Mice of two strains, differing by the relative brain weight (LB and SB) displayed differential behavioral effects after 7-day exposure to 50 mg/kg of memantine injections, the non-competitive NMDA-rec antagonist. Memantine increased the exploration behavior in LB mice as well as their reaction to novelty, while SB mice demonstrated the activation of behavior after the control saline injections. The number of newly developed neuronal elements in the hippocampal subgranular zone of dentate gyrus in LB (but not SB) mice subjected to memantine was higher in comparison to controls. In the intact samples of mouse strains used in this work no significant behavioral differences were found, which accentuated the genotype-dependent effects of memantine injections.