Journal: The Journal of Neuroscience
Article Title: Increased Neuronal Expression of the Early Endosomal Adaptor APPL1 Replicates Alzheimer’s Disease-Related Endosomal and Synaptic Dysfunction with Cholinergic Neurodegeneration
doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2331-24.2025
Figure Lengend Snippet: Early endosome alterations in Thy1-APPL1 mice. A , Representative immunofluorescent images of active, GTP-bound rab5 (rab5-GTP; red) and APPL1 (green) in neurons (layer V, prefrontal cortex) of non-Tg and Thy1-APPL1 mice at 12–13 months of age. Shown are images at lower magnification (40×, merged). The white arrow indicating the neuron shown at higher magnification for individual and merged immunofluorescent signal. Scale bar, 10 µm. B , Quantification of the average number, size, and total area of Rab5-GTP immunolabeled endosomes per cortical neuron in non-Tg versus Thy1-APPL1 mice at the indicated ages. Representative electron microscopy images containing dendritic profiles in layer V of prefrontal cortex ( C ) and hippocampus ( D ) regions and ( E ) quantification of average size and circumference of endosomes in both cortex and hippocampi showing the enlargement in Thy1-APPL1 compared with non-Tg mice aged at 12–13 months (red asterisk indicating endosome; 7 mice each genotype for cortex and 4 mice each genotype for hippocampi were used for quantification. Scale bar, 500 nm). Sixty images/mouse were quantified in E ; for cortex sections, a total of 2,635 endosomes from 14 mice were counted, averaging 188 endosomes per mouse; for hippocampal sections, a total of 1,594 endosomes were counted from 8 mice, with an average of 199 endosomes per mouse. F , Representative immunoelectron microscopy images containing dendritic profiles in layer V of prefrontal cortex labeled with rabbit anti-rab5 and mouse anti-APPL1 followed by gold-conjugated secondary anti-rabbit (6 nm, green arrow) and anti-mouse (10 nm, red arrow) in non-Tg and Thy1-APPL1 mice. Scale bar, 100 nm. G , Percentage of rab5/APPL1 double-positive endosomes versus total rab5-positive endosomes in the dendritic region of the cortex and hippocampus significantly increased in Thy1-APPL1 mice (3 mice per genotype. 35–40 images/mouse were used for counting; for cortex sections, a total of 130 endosomes were counted from 6 mice, with an average of 22 endosomes per mouse; for hippocampal sections, a total of 121 endosomes were counted from 6 mice, with an average of 20 endosomes per mouse). * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001, two-tailed, unpaired t test. Data is shown as mean ± SEM.
Article Snippet: For protein analyses, mouse hemibrains were homogenized in 1:10 (brain weight: buffer), pH 7.4, buffer containing 250 mM sucrose, 20 mM Tris-HCl, 1 mM EDTA, 1 mM EGTA, protease/phosphatase inhibitors ( ; ), and Western blot analyses as described previously and were performed with antibodies against APP (C1/6.1; 1 μg/ml; ), APP-βCTF (M3.2; 2 μg/ml; ), APPL1 (Proteintech; 1:1,000), rab5 (Abcam; 1:2,000), synaptophysin (Sigma-Aldrich, catalog #S5768, RRID:AB_477523; 1:2,000; ), phosphorylated tau [paired-helical filament tau, phosphorylated at Ser396 and Ser404 site (PHF1); 1:1,000, kind gift from P. Davies; ], and total tau protein (Agilent, catalog #A0024, RRID:AB_10013724; 1:5,000; ).
Techniques: Immunolabeling, Electron Microscopy, Immuno-Electron Microscopy, Labeling, Two Tailed Test