In Sickness and in Health: Perineuronal Nets and Synaptic Plasticity in Psychiatric Disorders

Figure 4

PNN structure is altered in Alzheimer’s disease. Examples of WFA-labeled PNNs in the entorhinal cortex of healthy subjects (a, c, e, g) and subjects with Alzheimer’s disorder (b, d, f, h). In healthy subjects, WFA-labeled PNNs are distributed across all layers of the ECx, with preferential concentration in layers II-III and layers V-VI (a). In subjects with Alzheimer’s disease, WFA labeling appears to be more loosely distributed, in aggregates throughout the ECx, often suggestive of degraded PNNs (b, d, f, h).