Figure 1
Bexarotene significantly increases ABCA1 in the brains of APP swe / PS1 Δ E9 mice, but does not alter Aβ plaques. (A) Representative Western blot (Vehicle (−), Bexarotene (+)) of ABCA1 in cortex of 8.5 mo. female mice, and graph of quantification normalized to β-tubulin-III. Bexarotene significantly increases ABCA1 expression by 50% after three days of gavage treatment [* F(1,13)=5.261, p=0.027]. (B) Percent brain area covered by plaques in 8 month (ubiquitin) and 11 month (7B6) female mice, calculated by stereological estimation on sections stained with the antibodies indicated. No significant differences in plaque burden were detected between treatment groups. N-values: Ubiquitin – veh=4, bex=6; 7B6 – veh=3, bex=5. Error bars represent standard deviation. (C) Gender comparison between % plaque area in 11 mo. mice, calculated by stereological estimation on sections stained with 7B6 antibody. Males had significantly lower plaque load compared to females in both treatment groups [* cortex, F(1,19)=20.177, p<0.0005 and ** hippocampus F(1,19)=14.045, p=0.001]. Error bars represent standard deviation. N-values: females- veh=3, bex5; males- veh=7, bex=8. Sample size estimates show this experiment has power of 88%. Representative images of plaques in APP swe /PS1 Δ E9 mice, stained with 7B6 - (D) M Veh (E) M Bex (F) F Veh (G) F Bex - and ubiquitin - (H) F Veh (I) F Bex.