Figure 3.

P301S tau mice have cortical neuron loss and memory deficit prevented by crossing with P2ry6 knockout mice

WT and P2ry6^−/− mice were crossed with P301S tau mice, aged, and tested at six months.

(A) Representative coronal section of perirhinal cortex immunostained for NeuN and nuclei identified by HALO system. Scale bar: 100μm.

(B) Quantification of neuronal density within the perirhinal cortex.

(C) Representative coronal section of motor cortex immunostained for NeuN and nuclei identified by HALO system. Scale bar: 500μm.

(D) Quantification of neuronal density within the motor cortex. Data = mean ± SEM (5–6 slices/animal, n = 8–9 animals per genotype). Statistical analysis was two-way ANOVA with post hoc Tukey’s multiple comparison test. ^∗p < 0.05, ^∗∗p < 0.01, and ^∗∗∗p < 0.001. At six months of age, mice were tested for novel-object recognition (NORT, testing 24 h after training).

(E) Percentage of time each animal spent exploring two identical objects during the training session of the NORT.

(F) Novel-object recognition, 24 h after training. Dashed lines indicate a 50% chance level. Each data point represents one animal, and error bars represent mean ± SEM. Data were analyzed by two-way ANOVA with Tukey-corrected post hoc comparisons. ^∗∗∗∗p < 0.0001. For each graph, all genotypes were compared, and if there is no marker of significance on the graph, then any difference was not significant. See also Figures S5, S6, and S8.