Fig. 4

Neuronal apoptosis and synaptic proteins reduction in 18-month old APN-KO mice. a Representative images show TUNEL-labeled (Red) apoptotic cells countered stained with DAPI (blue) in the cortex and hippocampus between 18-month old wildtype and APN-KO mice. b Graph demonstrates the differences of quantified numbers of TUNEL-labeled cells in the cortex and hippocampal CA1 region in wildtype and APN-KO mice. Two sampling regions (Blue square) in the cortex and one sampling region (red) in the hippocampal CA1 were defined. c Immunoblotting of synaptic proteins, synaptophysin and spinophilin in the hippocampus and frontal cortex of 18-mth old wildtype and APN-KO mice. d Densitometric analysis of synaptophysin and spinophilin demonstrating the differences of these synaptic proteins in the frontal cortex and hippocampus between wildtype and APN-KO mice. Mean ± S.E.M.; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, n.s. statistically not significant; WT (n = 4) vs APN-KO (n = 4) Scale bar: 50 μm