Figure 4
From: High Resolution Dissection of Reactive Glial Nets in Alzheimer’s Disease
RGNs surrounding fibrillar Aβ plaques.
(a) 3D reconstruction of a confocal Z-stack showing GFAP+ reactive astrocytes (green) and Iba1+ microglia (magenta) surrounding Thiazine red-labeled fibrillar Aβ plaque (cyan) in a AD patient (male, 87 years old). (b) 3D analysis of astrocyte and microglia position around a fibrillar plaque. (c,d) Quantification of the positioning of astrocytes and microglia relative to plaques and the positive correlation between astrocyte and microglial cell number and plaque size. (n +18; r = 0.561 for total Iba1+ cells, r = 0.635 for Iba1+ cells within GFAP shell and r = 0.479 for GFAP+ cells) (e) Comparison of dense-core and fibrillar plaque subtypes of interval of inter-distance of GFAP+ cells from plaques (F(1, 55) = 0.016; p = 0.8894), numbers of Iba1+ cells within the astrocyte shell of RGNs (F(1, 55) = 11.276; p < 0.001) and volume of the plaques (F(1, 55) = 19.841; p < 0.0001). ***p < 0.001: significantly different from dense-core plaque. (f) Sequence of 8 successive focal planes (2 μm step size) showing Iba1+ microglial (magenta) and GFAP+ astrocytes (green) with astrocytic processes (arrowheads) invading the Aβ fibrillar masse (cyan). Scale bars: 20 μm.
