Heterozygous females from a rat model for creatine transporter deficiency reveal altered behavioral response to stressors, normal body weight and slight metabolic changes.

Creatine (Cr) is an organic acid essential for recycling ATP, important in tissues with high energy demand such as muscle or brain. Cr is synthesized in a 2-step pathway by the enzymes AGAT and GAMT, and transported by SLC6A8 (also called CrT). Cerebral Cr deficiency syndromes (CCDS), due to AGAT, GAMT or CrT deficiencies, are metabolic diseases characterized by brain Cr deficiency, causing a range of clinical features such as severe neurodevelopmental delays and intellectual disability, behavioral disturbances, motor dysfunction and epilepsy. Among CCDS, the X-linked CrT deficiency (CTD) is the most prevalent with no efficient treatment so far. Increasing number of human and animal studies contributes to the understanding of CTD pathology, its diagnosis and treatment, and the roles of Cr and CrT. However, most of them are focused in males and little is known about female carriers and how CrT deficiency affect them. In order to increase knowledge in female sex and roughly explore the relationship with SLC6A8 gene dosage, we present the first characterization of females'