Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration: mouse models

Genetically modified mouse models have been instrumental in deciphering pathomechanisms in a large variety of human conditions. Accordingly, transgenic and knockout mice have contributed to understanding neurodegenerative processes in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). While initial models for AD and FTLD based on mutations in APP and tau have been generated more than a decade ago, identification of novel genes involved in disease has markedly increased the spectrum of available FTLD mouse models. This chapter provides an overview of APP and tau-based mouse models of AD and FTLD and how these models have advanced our understanding of disease mechanisms as well as discusses more recent FTLD models of novel disease genes.