Staging of Alzheimer's Pathology in Triple Transgenic Mice: A Light and Electron Microscopic Analysis

Figure 13

Electron microphotographs showing neuritic plaques (p) surrounded by numerous dystrophic neurites (dotted-red circles) in tissue sections through the hippocampal-subicular complex of a 9-(A) and 23-(B) month-old 3xTg-AD female mouse. Boxed area (a) shows details of the fibrillar material from amyloid plaque in A. a′ shows an example of a dystrophic neurite from a 9-month-old 3xTg-AD containing electron-dense multilaminar, multivesicular, and dense-core bodies similar to that seen in the cortex of a patient with AD (D). Note that at 23 months of age neuritic plaques show an electron dense center core (B) with numerous fibrillar branches (b) similar to a neuritic plaque seen in AD (c). Abbreviation: n: nucleus. Scale bars: A = 2 μm, B = 5 μm, C, a, b = 0.5 𝜇m, and D, a′ =1 𝜇m.