1. Parvalbumin-Positive Neuron Loss and Amyloid-β Deposits in the Frontal Cortex of Alzheimer’s Disease-Related Mice
- Author
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Arianna Neal, Farhan Ali, Alex C. Kwan, Stephanie L Baringer, and Esther Y Choi
- Subjects
Male ,0301 basic medicine ,Cingulate cortex ,Pathology ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Frontal cortex ,Mice, Transgenic ,Plaque, Amyloid ,Biology ,Somatosensory system ,Article ,Mice ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Alzheimer Disease ,In vivo ,Cortex (anatomy) ,medicine ,Animals ,Neurons ,Amyloid beta-Peptides ,General Neuroscience ,General Medicine ,Frontal Lobe ,Disease Models, Animal ,Psychiatry and Mental health ,Clinical Psychology ,Parvalbumins ,030104 developmental biology ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,biology.protein ,GABAergic ,Neuron ,Geriatrics and Gerontology ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Parvalbumin - Abstract
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has several hallmark features including amyloid-β plaque deposits and neuronal loss. Here, we characterized amyloid-β plaque aggregation and parvalbumin-positive (PV) GABAergic neurons in 6 – 9 month old 5xFAD mice harboring mutations associated with familial AD. We used immunofluorescent staining to compare three regions in the frontal cortex – prelimbic (PrL), cingulate (Cg, including Cg1 and Cg2) and secondary motor (M2) cortices – along with primary somatosensory (S1) cortex. We quantified the density of amyloid-β plaques, which showed significant laminar and regional vulnerability. There were more plaques of larger sizes in deep layers compared to superficial layers. Total plaque burden was higher in frontal regions compared to S1. We also found layer- and region-specific differences across genotype in the density of PV interneurons. PV neuron density was lower in 5xFAD mice than wild-type, particularly in deep layers of frontal regions, with Cg (−50%) and M2 (−39%) exhibiting the largest reduction. Using in vivo two-photon imaging, we longitudinally visualized the loss of frontal cortical PV neurons across four weeks in the AD mouse model. Overall, these results provide information about amyloid-β deposits and PV neuron density in a widely used mouse model for AD, implicating deep layers of frontal cortical regions as being especially vulnerable.
- Published
- 2019