Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy in Transgenic Mice Modelling Alzheimers Disease Studied Non-Invasively by MRI

Nicolau Beckmann¹, Catherine Cannet¹, Christelle Gerard¹, Dorothee Abramowski², Matthias Staufenbiel²

MRI detected effects of cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) in several lines of Alzheimers mice differing by amyloid--40 (A40) contents. SPIO was administered i.v. 24h before MRI. Signal attenuations became apparent in multiple foci throughout the brain cortex and in thalamic regions of APP23 mice displaying high A40. At sites of MRI signal loss, iron was localized in microglia cells/macrophages in/or around damaged vessels. The small number of attenuated signal foci in the brains of APP24 and APP23xPS45 mice characterized by low A40 was consistent with histology showing significantly less vascular amyloid compared to APP23 animals. These results agree with A40 predominating in CAA-related vascular amyloid.