Fig. 1

Reduced dopamine and dopaminergic innervation in Tg2576 NAc core and shell since 4 months of age. A Example, representative traces (scale: 100 pA; 200 ms) and evoked DA concentration in NAc shell, NAc core and striatum (WT: n = 28–39 observations from 10 to 13 slices, 4 mice; Tg2576: n = 27–39 observations from 10 to 13 slices, 4 mice) in 4-month-old WT and Tg2576 mice recorded with a carbon fiber electrode of equal calibration (NAc shell; Unpaired t- test with Welch’s correction, ***p = 0.0001; NAc core: Unpaired t-test, **p = 0.0015). The schematic on the left shows the placement of the stimulating (black arrowheads) and carbon fiber electrodes (white arrowheads) used for the recordings in the three brain regions. B Representative immunofluorescent labelling (scale bar, 200 μm) for TH in 4-month-old WT and Tg2576 mice and graphs showing densitometric values of TH levels. Left panels: NAc coronal sections showing the NAc shell (asterisk; n = 5 per genotype. Unpaired t-test: ***p = 0.0003) and NAc core (arrowhead; n = 5 per genotype. Unpaired t-test: *p = 0.0245). Right panels: dorsal striatum (scale bar, 50 μm. n = 5 per genotype). C As in B, but showing immunofluorescent labelling (scale bar, 200 μm) for DAT in NAc shell (asterisk; n = 5 per genotype. Unpaired t-test: **p = 0.0017), NAc core (arrowhead; n = 5 per genotype. Unpaired t-test: *p = 0.0123) and dorsal striatum (scale bar, 50 μm. n = 5 per genotype). In this and all other Figures, in box-and-whisker plots the center line shows the median value, edges are upper and lower quartiles, whiskers show minimum and maximum values, and each point is an individual experiment