These mice have previously been shown to exhibit increases in luciferase activity in response to a variety of insults or diseases that also result in astrogliosis and raised levels of GFAP mRNA, including kainic acid-induced seizures (Zhu et al., 2004), bacterial infection (Kadurugamuwa et al., 2005), inflammation (Luo et al., 2008), stroke (Cordeau et al., 2008), scrapie (Tamgüney et al., 2009), motor neuron degeneration (Keller et al., 2009) and expression of mutant APP (amyloid precursor protein) (Watts et al., 2011). Here, APP is linked to bacterial infectious disease.