Fig. 1

Balance impairments of mice treated with IDPN and a scheme of experiments. a Scheme of experiments. Behavioral tests were performed with 4–5 aged male mice following oral administration of IDPN. The control group (n = 5) and the IDPN group (n = 5) were subjected to behavioral tests after administration of IDPN. b A rotarod test, c a beam crossing test, and d an air-righting reflex test were performed before and 3–4 days after administration of IDPN (28 mmol/kg) to wild-type mice having an ICR background. b Latency until falling or slipping on the rotarod (seconds, mean ± SD), c time to traverse (seconds, mean ± SD), and d latency until righting reflex (milliseconds) were recorded for the control group (black bars, n = 5) and the IDPN group (white bars, n = 5). For the beam crossing test, a score of 10 s was given for mice that could not walk on the beam anymore because of complete loss of balance. Significant differences (**p < 0.01) between the two groups were analyzed by two-tailed Student’s t test