Figure 1.

Ifnb^–/– Mice Exhibit Spontaneous Behavioral and Cognitive Impairments and Neurodegeneration

(A) Motor coordination by RotaRod. Data are mean second(s) ± SEM, n = 8–13/group. ^∗p < 0.05, ^∗∗p < 0.01 for genotype effect per time point by unpaired Student’s t test; ^#p < 0.05 for aging effect. ^€€€p < 0.001 and ^§§p < 0.01 for genotype and aging effect, respectively, over time, by two-way ANOVA.

(B) Wire suspension performance. Data are mean ± SEM, 9–13/group.

(C and D) (C) Cold and (D) heat tail-flick latency. Data are mean ± SEM, 9–11/group.

(B–D) Unpaired Student’s t test. ^∗p < 0.05, ^∗∗p < 0.01, ^∗∗∗p < 0.001.

(E) Morris water maze test. Data are mean ± SEM, 8–21 mice/group. ^###p < 0.001 shows genotype effect; ^€p < 0.05 shows age effect; ^∗p < 0.05 comparing genotypes by two-way ANOVA and (^∗) with Bonferroni post hoc test.

(F) Representative maze swimming pattern on probes 1 and 2.

(G) TUNEL staining of hippocampus from 1.5-month-old mice with methyl green nuclear counterstaining. MoDG, molecular dentate gyrus; GrDG, granular dentate gyrus; alv, alveus. Scale bar, 200 μm.

(H) H&E brain staining showing loss of granular cell layer and Purkinje cells (arrows) in Ifnb^–/– hippocampus (upper) and cerebellum (lower). Scale bar, 200 μm.

(I) Number of neurons and glial cells in hippocampus of 3- to 6-month-old mice. Data are mean ± SEM, n = 6 mice/group. ^∗p < 0.05 using Student’s t test.

(J) IF of 3-month-old brain sections. Scale bars, 10 μm.

(K) Z stack projections of CNs cultured for 4 and 21 days with or without rIFN-β. Scale bar, 50 μm.

(L) Quantified neurite length from 4-day-old CNs.

Data are mean ± SEM, n = 3–4, counting 11–32 cells per experiment. ^∗p < 0.05, ^∗∗p < 0.01, ^∗∗∗p < 0.001 by one-way ANOVA. See also Figure S1 and Table S1.