Fig. 3.

Cutaneous vascular impairments due to Alzheimer’s disease are driven by mTOR. A Representative images of baseline hind paw perfusion captured with laser speckle contrast imaging as measured in 22-month-old animals. B Baseline blood flow is significantly reduced in hAPP(J20) mice treated with vehicle (AD Veh) compared to WT littermates (*, Tukey’s q(15)=3.77, p=0.044). Inhibition of mTOR with rapamycin in hAPP(J20) mice (AD Rapa) mice restored baseline perfusion to levels not significantly different from those of WT mice (Tukey’s q(15)=1.07, p=0.73, n.s.). C Representative images of evoked blood flow 5 min after topical application of a 10% menthol and 30% methyl salicylate cream. These images correspond to the same animals shown in panel A, respectively. D The time course of evoked blood flow demonstrates that 22-month-old AD Veh mice have consistently reduced blood flow at all time points relative to age-matched WT littermate controls (** indicates Tukey’s q>4.32, p<0.009, applied to significant main effects of time (F(3, 45)=43.74, p<0.0001) and group (F(2,15)=5.55, p=0.016) via two-way repeated measures ANOVA. AD Rapa peripheral blood flow was not significantly different than WT littermate controls (p>0.30 at each time point). Data are mean ± SEM. n= 5–7 per group