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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Neuroanat.
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnana.2025.1526962

The effects of amyloidosis and aging on glutamatergic and GABAergic synapses, and interneurons in the barrel cortex and non-neocortical brain regions

Provisionally accepted
Tao Qu Tao Qu *
  • Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Previous studies on changes in the distribution of GABAergic interneurons and excitation/inhibition (E/I) balance in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and aging were mainly conducted in the neocortex and hippocampus. However, the limbic system is the primary and crucial location for AD progression. Therefore, in this study, we utilized AD and aging mouse models to investigate the E/I balance and the distribution of parvalbumin (PV)-and somatostatin (SST)-expressing cells in S1BF (barrel field of primary somatosensory cortex, barrel cortex), CA1 hippocampal area and brain regions beyond the neocortex and hippocampus, including retrosplenial cortex (RSC, which is composed of RSG and RSA), piriform cortex (Pir), amygdala (BMA), and hypothalamus (DM). We discovered that amyloidosis may disrupt the alignment of excitatory pre-and postsynaptic quantities.Amyloidosis reduces the quantity of synapses and SST cells, but does not impact the counts of PV cells. By contrast, aging is linked to a decline in synapses, I/E ratios, SST and PV cells.Amyloidosis affects the S1BF and BMA, while aging may harm all studied regions, including the S1BF, RSC, hippocampus, Pir, BMA, and DM. Aging mostly affects synapses and I/E ratios in Pir, BMA, and DM, and PV and SST interneurons in the hippocampus.

    Keywords: AD, Aging, PV, Sst, barrel cortex, non-neocortical brain regions

    Received: 12 Nov 2024; Accepted: 15 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Qu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Tao Qu, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany

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