SYNAPTIC DEFICITS IN LAYER 5 NEURONS PRECEDE OVERT STRUCTURAL DECAY IN 5XFAD MICE

Synaptic decay and neurodegeneration are hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease that are thought to precede dementia. Recently, we have reported that the first signs of neuritic dystrophy in a new transgenic mouse model of familial Alzheimer's disease (FAD) called the 5xFAD are axonal dystrophy followed by loss of spines on basal dendrites. The 5xFAD mouse has profound loss of layer 5 neurons by 12 months, and these initial structural insults appear between 4 and 6 months of age. Here, we test, for the first time, if synaptic failure of layer 5 neurons in the 5xFAD mouse precedes these structural changes. We used longitudinal, in vivo two-photon fluorescence imaging of bigenic 5xFADIYFP mice to assess the overall structural stability of layer 5 neurons in young mice (age less than 14 weeks). We found these neurons to be structurally and morphologically sound. In parallel, we used in vitro, whole-cell patch clamp electrophysiology of layer 5 pyramidal neurons, from mice aged 8-12 weeks, to reveal significant pre- and postsynaptic defects in these cells. Thus our data suggest that layer 5 neurons in the 5xFAD mouse model have synaptic deficits at an early time point, before any overt structural dystrophy, and that such synaptic failure, with co-temporal biochemical changes, may be an early step in neuronal loss. (c) 2013 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.