Fig. 3: Whole-brain analysis of Aβ plaque accumulation in 5xFAD mice.

A Staining of Aβ plaques on coronal brain sections at the indicated ages. The drawings of the sagittal planes were adapted from the Atlas of Paxinos and Franklin [91] with blue lines indicating the focal plane of coronal sections. PFC prefrontal cortex, CTX cortex, HIPP hippocampus, EC entorhinal cortex, Sub subiculum. B Schematic illustration of the iDISCO method for visualizing the whole-brain distribution of Aβ plaque accumulation. Illustrations were created with BioRender.com. C Each image stack was registered to the 3-D Allen Mouse Brain Atlas. D A single sagittal plane image showing the deposition of Aβ plaques in the brain at 4 and 8 months of age. E Quantification of Aβ plaques in eight major brain structures. The hippocampus here refers to the dentate gyrus and hippocampus proper (CA1-3), not including the subicular cortex. F Quantification of Aβ plaques for subregional comparisons between two age groups. Scale bar = 1000 μm. n = 3 male mice per group. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 at 8-month-old compared with 4-month-old. ACA anterior cingulate area, PL prelimbic cortex, IL infralimbic cortex, DG dentate gyrus, LEC lateral entorhinal cortex, MEC medial entorhinal cortex, BLA basolateral amygdalar nucleus, BMA basomedial amygdalar nucleus, CEA central amygdalar nucleus, BST bed nuclei of the stria terminalis, Xi xiphoid thalamic nucleus, MD mediodorsal nucleus of thalamus, PT parataenial nucleus, PVT paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus, SO supraoptic nucleus, ASO accessory supraoptic group, PVH paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus, ARH arcuate hypothalamic nucleus, PSTN parasubthalamic nucleus, PPN pedunculopontine nucleus, PB parabrachial nucleus, DMX dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus nerve, NTS nucleus of the solitary tract.