A Dietary Treatment Improves Cerebral Blood Flow and Brain Connectivity in Aging apoE4 Mice

Figure 4

Quantitatively assessed diffusion tensor derived indices at 12 months and 18 months of age in C57BL/6J wild-type control mice and ApoE4 transgenic mice on control diet or Fortasyn diet. (a) Fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) were measured for ROIs drawn in white and gray matter regions, respectively. (b) In 12-month-old mice, no differences in FA were observed. In the 12-month-old mice, the wild-type mice on Fortasyn diet had higher MD in the motor cortex than wild-type mice on control diet (). Furthermore apoE4 mice on Fortasyn diet had a lower MD in the motor cortex than wild-type mice on Fortasyn (). Fortasyn diet decreased MD in the auditory cortex () and in the somatosensory cortex () compared to control diet, irrespective of genotype. (c) At 18 months of age, Fortasyn fed mice had a lower FA at −0.7 mm in the corpus callosum than control fed mice (). At 18 months of age, apoE4 mice displayed an increased MD in the auditory cortex (). ; ; .

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