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

Figure 6

Resting-state functional connectivity (FC) based on partial correlation analyses of 15 regions of interest (ROIs) in the mouse brain. Total correlation matrices of wild-type and apoE4 at 12 and 18 months of age, both on Fortasyn and control diets. At 12 months of age, apoE4 mice showed a reduced FC pattern between left dorsal and ventral hippocampus (). Additionally, animals on Fortasyn compared to control diet showed an increased partial correlation in the interhemispheric connection between left and right ventral hippocampus (). At 18 months of age, ApoE4 mice on both diets had a reduced FC between the right auditory cortex and the right motor cortex (). The Fortasyn diet caused contrasting effects: a higher FC was found between left-to-right motor cortices (), but a slight FC reduction was revealed between left and right dorsal hippocampus (). Fortasyn diet increased partial correlation in apoE4 mice compared to their wild-type littermates between left and right auditory cortex () and between right auditory cortex and right somatosensory cortex (). In wild-type mice FC between left somatosensory cortex and left auditory cortex () was higher in Fortasyn fed animals compared to control fed animals.