Figure 5
From: CART treatment improves memory and synaptic structure in APP/PS1 mice
CART treatment protects neurites against Aβ toxicity in cultured cortical neurons and preserves synaptic structures in APP/PS1 mouse brain.
(a) CART treatment prevents loss of neurite structures (MAP2, green) and enhances synaptophysin (red) expression in cultured cortical neurons. Scale bar =40 μm. CART treatment increased the average neurite length compared to no treatment (b) and increased synaptophysin-positive areas within neurites (c). All values are mean ± SEM of data from at least 45 randomly selected images for each assay, based on 3 independent experiments using different primary culture preparations. **p < 0.01 versus B6 control, #p < 0.05 versus cortical neurons treated with Aβ1-42 only. (d) CART treatment preserves synaptic ultrastructure in the cortex and hippocampus of APP/PS1 mice (8 months), as visualized by electron microscopy. Electron micrographs illustrate synaptic ultrastructure in the cortex (upper three panels) and hippocampus (lower three panels) of B6 control mice, untreated APP/PS1 mice and APP/PS1 mice with CART treatment. The black arrows indicate synaptic clefts; the red arrows indicate perforated synapses. PSD, postsynaptic density; SV, synaptic vesicles. Scale bar =0.5 μm. (e) CART treatment elevated synaptophysin levels in the hippocampus, as determined by Western blot analysis followed by quantification. The blot shown here is a representative of 3 independent experiments. Blot images were cropped for comparison. All values are expressed as mean ±SEM of the band intensity of synaptophysin normalized to GAPDH from 3 independent experiments, **p < 0.01 versus B6 control mice, #p < 0.05 versus APP/PS1 mice without CART treatment.
