Figure 4
Assessment of amyloid-β plaques by fluorescent staining. (A) Representative Thioflavin-S stains among groups. (B) Quantification of amyloid-β plaque sizes in the cortex and (C) hippocampus, the data are represented as the ratio of the green fluorescence area from the region-of-interest (ROI). FUS alone only contribute a significant difference in hippocampus region when compared to the control group (15.1% reduction compared to control, p < 0.05). When GSK-3 inhibitor was administrated alone, significant reductions of amyloid-β plaque can be observed in both regions compared to the control group (31.6% and 22.6% reduction compared to control, with p < 0.05 and p < 0.01 in cortex and hippocampus respectively). When GSK-3 inhibitor was mediated by using FUS, there were reductive effects compared to respective control group (42.1% and 39.6% reduction compared to control, with p < 0.05 and p < 0.01 in cortex and hippocampus respectively). It was noted that combined AR + FUS treatment also induced the additive plaque reduction effect when compared to FUS alone (28.9%, p = 0.0003) and inhibitor alone (22%, p = 0.0236) in hippocampus when compared to control. AR = AR-A014418; FUS = focused ultrasound. Scale bar = 500 μm.
