Table 2 Brain mRNA expression of inflammatory markers in young and aged ApoE-/- mice.

From: Simvastatin therapy attenuates memory deficits that associate with brain monocyte infiltration in chronic hypercholesterolemia

Target gene

ApoE-/- young (4 months)

ApoE-/- aged (12 months)

Whole brain

IL12

0.92 ± 0.07

5.12 ± 0.59*

MCP-1

0.56 ± 0.04

7.55 ± 0.68*

TNF-α

1.04 ± 0.12

3.37 ± 0.23*

IL6

1.26 ± 0.17

3.29 ± 0.30*

CXCL2

0.68 ± 0.17

29.32 ± 7.97*

iNOS

0.32 ± 0.03

3.81 ± 0.31*

Cortex

IL12

1.02 ± 0.05

5.01 ± 1.22*

IL23

0.20 ± 0.07

0.40 ± 0.16

Arg-1

0.52 ± 0.08

0.53 ± 0.09

Hippocampus

IL12

1.28 ± 0.56

11.84 ± 4.91*

IL23

0.51 ± 0.09

2.44 ± 0.89*

Arg-1

3.31 ± 0.66

1.64 ± 0.32*

  1. mRNA expression of prominent inflammatory markers, including markers for classically and alternatively activated microglia were determined in whole brain tissue isolated from 4- and 12-month-old ApoE-/- mice using quantitative real-time PCR (6 top rows). In addition, selected markers were tested in cortex and hippocampus fractions. ApoE apolipoprotein E, Arg-1 arginase 1, CXCL chemokine (C–X–C motif) ligand, IL interleukin, iNOS inducible nitric oxide synthase, MCP-1 monocyte chemoattractant protein 1, TNF-α tumor necrosis factor alpha. Values are expressed as normalized to housekeeping gene expression and are shows as mean ± SEM. N denotes number of independent biological replicates. N = 5 mice per group; * denotes P ≤ 0.05 after single unpaired comparisons (two-tailed t-test).
Back to article page