Figure 2: BBB disruption occurs early in HD pathogenesis in R6/2 mice.

(A) Representative fluorescence micrographs of brain cryosections from striatum and cortex of R6/2 mice at different stage of the disease and from a representative late-HD age-matched WT littermate (12 week of age), showing FITC-Albumin extravasation (bright green fluorescence) in the brain parenchyma of early- and late-HD mice. Green fluorescence signals of FITC-Albumin in pre-symptomatic HD mice and WT control were only restricted to the inside of the brain blood vessels. (B and C) Graph shows quantitation of the green fluorescence emitted by FITC-Albumin, reported as Fluoresecence Arbitrary Unit (FAU), in the striatum and cortex of WT and R6/2 mice at different disease stages. Data are represented as mean ± SD. ****p < 0.0001 (Two Way ANOVA, Tukey post-test). (D) Representative fluorescence micrographs of brain cryosections from striatum of R6/2 mice at different stage of the disease and age-matched WT littermates showing only partial co-localization of FITC-Albumin (bright green fluorescence) with vessel marker laminin (red) in tissues from early and late-HD stages. Scale bar in the merge monograph represents 100 μm.