Expression of Phenotypic Astrocyte Marker Is Increased in a Transgenic Mouse Model of Alzheimer’s Disease versus Age-Matched Controls: A Presymptomatic Stage Study

Figure 2

Quantification of GFAP expression in the hippocampus of 3-month-old WT and APPswe/PS1dE9 mice. (a) Representative immunoblot of GFAP (55 kDa) expression in hippocampal protein extracts coming from WT () and APPswe/PS1dE9 (). Semiquantitative analysis of immunoblot was performed using ImageJ software. The immunoreactivity of each protein band was normalized to β-actin (42 kDa) immunoreactivity. The results were expressed as relative optical density (ROD); indicates . (b) The increase in GFAP correlates positively with APP ( = 0.8917; ) and (c) TNFα ( = 0.8351; ) among the APPswe/PS1dE9 mice analyzed according to the animal-by-animal basis. Linear regression analysis (b and c) was performed using the ROD values shown in Figures 2(a), 1(a), and 1(b) for GFAP, APP, and TNFα, respectively. indicates . (d) Confocal microscopy of the morphology of GFAP-IR cells (red) and DAPI for nuclei (blue) in the CA1-2 hippocampal subregion of WT (upper) and APPswe/PS1dE9 (lower) mice. Scale bar: 50 µm. NTg: wild type; Tg: APPswe/PS1dE9.

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