Figure 2.

Mechanisms contributing to CBF reductions in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease. (a) Images from 15 month old WT (left) and APP/PS1-Tg4510 mice (right; overexpresses mutant APP and mutant tau), showing clearly increased vascular volume in this AD mouse model containing both APP and tau-related mutations (Scale bar, 20 μm).¹⁴⁰ (b) Fragmentation of smooth muscle cells (arrows) along a cortical arteriole in Tg2576 mice (left image), which is attenuated by CD36 deletion (right image) (Scale bar, 10 μm; anti-α-actin: green, anti-Aβ: red).¹⁶⁸ (c) Example image of a pericyte (red) constricting around a cortical capillary (blood plasma shown in green), with blood cell flow blocked, from an AD mouse.¹⁵⁷ (d) Cerebral perfusion was maintained in TgCRND8 mice treated with dabigatran.¹⁵⁹ (e) Image sequences showing stalled (left panels) and flowing (right panels) capillaries, where the darker spots in vessels are due to unlabeled blood cells within the fluorescently-labeled blood plasma. Stalled capillaries, where blood cells do not move frame-to-frame, occurred at higher incidence in APP/PS1 mice, as compared to controls.⁹⁷