Figure 6

Casp2-/- mice are not protected from brain pathology assayed with MRI. A) Volumes for brain structures were determined by automated segmentation of MRI images and expressed as Z-scores. YAC128 mice have smaller brains, with specific shrinkage in the basal ganglia and other sub-cortical gray matter structures. Casp2-/- mice are not protected from any of these losses (summary statistics for two-way ANOVA indicated). B) To control for overall brain atrophy, structure volumes were expressed as a percentage of brain volume. Relative striatal volume is decreased in the YAC128 mice, and not rescued in the casp2-/-;YAC128 mice (Post-hoc Bonferroni genotype comparisons "*" indicates p < 0.05). The cerebellum is relatively preserved in the YAC128 mice, due to selective forebrain degeneration. This phenotype is not ameliorated in the casp2-/-;YAC128 mice (Post-hoc Bonferroni genotype comparisons "*" indicates p < 0.05). Mean="+", horizontal bars = quartiles, isolated dots = outliers. N = 9 WT mice, 11 YAC128 mice, 9 casp2-/- mice, 14 Casp2-/-;YAC128 mice.