Killmar, J. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2025

Global dissection of the impact of Alzheimer's disease on brain architecture and behavior: High resolution MRH resolves robust regional effects

Alzheimers disease (AD) affects brain regions with remarkable heterogeneity, but the precise impact of this disease on hundreds of small cortical, subcortical, and brainstem regions remains poorly defined. Here, as a prelude to testing preclinical models to prevent AD, we systematically quantified effects of human AD mutations in APP and PSEN1 on 231 regions and comprehensively evaluated changes in volume with unprecedented resolution in genetically diverse mice as a function of sex and genetic background. We studied 34 5XFAD F1 hybrids and 23 sibling controls at 14 months, evaluating learning and memory behaviors, followed by ex vivo diffusion tensor images (DTI) at 25 {micro}m resolution. We delineated 231 regions of interest (ROIs) bilaterally with high precision. Remarkably, we found bidirectional changes: marked volume increases (up to 10%) in neocortex, hippocampus, amygdala, and sensory nuclei, contrasted with decreases in striatum, pallidum, thalamus, hypothalamus, and most fiber tracts. These opposing effects are unrelated to amyloid load and are likely to reflect temporal gradients in susceptibility of ROIs. Effects are similar in both sexes but far more prominent in females. Genetic background strongly modulates penetrance of the human mutations with the AD-BXD77 F1 type having the greatest sensitivity. Light sheet microscopy and stereological analysis of NeuN+ neurons and amyloid {beta} aggregates in 22 regions revealed up to 20% loss of cells in CA3 and in anterior and intralaminar parts of the thalamus. Volumetric changes correlated with impaired fear acquisition and memory, with cases and controls often showing opposite relations between performance and regional volumes. These findings reveal unprecedented regional heterogeneity in AD progression and suggest therapeutic efficacy may vary substantially across genetic backgrounds and between sexes.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

Polyglucosan body density in the aged mouse hippocampus is controlled by a novel modifier locus on chromosome 1

In aged humans and mice, aggregates of hypobranched glycogen molecules called polyglucosan bodies (PGBs) accumulate in hippocampal astrocytes. PGBs are known to drive cognitive decline in neurological diseases but remain largely unstudied in the context of typical brain aging. Here, we show that PGBs arise in autophagy-dysregulated astrocytes of the aged C57BL/6J mouse hippocampus. To map the genetic cause of age-related PGB accumulation, we quantified PGB burden in 32 fully sequenced BXD-recombinant inbred mouse strains, which display a 400-fold variation in hippocampal PGB burden at 16-18 months of age. A major modifier locus was mapped to chromosome 1 at 72-75 Mb, which we defined as the Pgb1 locus. To evaluate candidate genes and downstream mechanisms by which Pgb1 controls the aggregation of glycogen, extensive hippocampal transcriptomic and proteomic datasets were produced for aged mice of the BXD family. We utilized these datasets to identify Smarcal1 and Usp37 as potential regulators of PGB accumulation. To assess the effect of PGB burden on age-related cognitive decline, we performed phenome-wide association scans, transcriptomic analyses as well as conditioned fear memory and Y-maze testing. Importantly, we did not find any evidence suggesting a negative impact of PGBs on cognition. Taken together, our study demonstrates that the Pgb1 locus controls glycogen aggregation in astrocytes of the aged hippocampus without affecting age-related cognitive decline.

genetics↗