Age and Environment Influences on Mouse Prion Disease Progression: Behavioral Changes and Morphometry and Stereology of Hippocampal Astrocytes

Figure 7

Astrocyte morphometry. (a) ME7-SE and ME7-EE mice showed significantly higher branch volumes compared to NBH-SE and NBH-EE animals, respectively. ME7-EE and ME7-A groups had reduced branch volumes versus ME7-SE mice. (c) Prion disease also increased the surface area of astrocyte branches compared with NBH-SE and ME7-A groups. An increase in branch surface area also was seen in ME7-EE versus NBH-EE mice and in NBH-EE versus NBH-SE animals. (e) ME7-SE astrocytes showed significantly longer branches than NBH-SE and ME7-A astrocytes. (b, d) Total volume and total surface area in ME7-SE mice were found in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th branch orders whereas, in EE animals, effects on surface area were limited to branches from the 1st to 3rd orders, and volume differences were limited to between the 1st and 4th orders. (f) 1st and 2nd branch orders from ME7-EE were significantly longer than the corresponding branches of ME7-SE. Nonsignificant alterations were detected in aged mice (; ; Bonferroni posttests).

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