Figure 11.

Mini-GAGR increases PSD95 and GAP43 in the hippocampus and its nearby cortex in 12-month-old female 3xTg-AD mouse brains. A, the cytosols of combined hippocampal and cortical tissues from 3xTg-AD mice treated with either 100 nmol of mini-GAGR for 20 days were used for immunoblotting for GAP43, PSD95, and actin. The band densities of GAP43 and PSD95 were quantified by ImageJ to obtain average density ± S.E. (error bars) for bar graphs: GAP43 (∼38 kDa) control versus mini-GAGR (B) and PSD95 (180 kDa) (n = 6 animals; *, p < 0.05; ***, p < 0.001) (C). D and E, hippocampal sections of 3xTg-AD mice treated with either vehicle (D) or 100 nm mini-GAGR (E) were stained with antibodies to GAP43 (green; Alexa Fluor 488) and NeuN (red; Alexa Fluor 594) and DAPI (blue). Displayed is the merge of this staining. F, scatter plots show the average number of GAP43-positive hippocampal CA1-CA2 and CA3 regions of 3xTg-AD mice treated with either vehicle or 100 nm mini-GAGR (n = 6 animals (12 sections)/treatment; **, p < 0.01) (*, p < 0.05; **, p < 0.01; ***, p < 0.001; unpaired t test, two-tailed). Data are expressed as mean ± S.E.