Alzheimer's Disease Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Alzheimer's Disease, including details on diagnosis, memory loss, heredity, treatment, medication.

Stereological analysis of microvascular parameters in a double transgenic model of Alzheimer's disease.

Lee GD, Aruna JH, Barrett PM, Lei DL, Ingram DK, Mouton PR

Laboratory of Experimental Gerontology, Behavioral Neuroscience Section, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, 5600 Nathan Shock Drive, Baltimore, MD 21224, USA.

Morphological alterations in microvasculature occur as a common finding in the brains of non-demented aged persons and patients with Alzheimer's disease. Quantifying the extent of this vascular pathology, however, has been complicated by systematic error (bias) associated with the applications of assumption- and model-based morphometric techniques to human and animal tissues. The current study used novel assumption- and model-free stereological approaches to quantify capillary parameters in the corpus callosum of a double amyloid precursor protein/presenilin-1 transgenic murine model of Alzheimer's disease. The results revealed significant reductions in the total number of capillary segments in white matter of transgenic mice compared to non-transgenic littermates, with no differences in total capillary length. These findings support the view that the expression of mutant human genes for beta-amyloid peptides alters the normal architecture of cerebral capillary vessels in the white matter of mouse brain, which may model microvasculature changes reported in Alzheimer's disease.

Published 6 April 2005 in Brain Res Bull, 65(4): 317-22.
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