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Session: Emerging and Pre-clinical Imaging Technologies [Return to Session]

Investigating Metal and Amyloid-Beta Plaque Distribution in TgSWDI Transgenic Mice After Sub-Chronic Lead Exposure Using Synchrotron X-Ray Fluorescence

A Webb1*, O Antipova2, H Gu3, Y Du3, W Zheng1, LH Nie1, (1) School of Health Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, (2) Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Lab, Lemont, IL, (3) Department of Neurology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN

Presentations

SU-J-207-5 (Sunday, 7/10/2022) 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM [Eastern Time (GMT-4)]

Room 207

Purpose: The purpose of this work is to understand the effect of chronic lead (Pb) exposure on metal distribution in the brain of transgenic mice known to develop Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) pathology.

Methods: Two groups of Tg-SWDI mice aged six months were used in this study. Lead-exposed and control animals received 0.2% Pb-acetate and Na-acetate, respectively, in drinking water, for one month. There were six mice in the exposed group (three male, three female) and four mice in the control. At the end of Pb treatment, the mice were sacrificed and brains extracted, frozen, and sliced to a thickness of 10 micrometers. Synchrotron micro-x-ray fluorescence (μ-XRF) experiments were performed at the 2-ID-E beamline of the Advanced Photon Source (APS). MAPs was used for data analysis.

Results: The synchrotron μ-XRF results revealed the presence of trace-element-concentrated (TEC) spots ranging in size from 10’s of square-microns to 1000’s of square-microns containing varying concentrations of multiple elements, including, but not limited to, Al, Ca, Cu, Fe, Pb, Se, Si, and Zn. These TEC spots were visible in both the Pb-exposed and control brain samples. We observed intriguing associations between different elements in these spots in these samples. Among others, there were competing effects between elements such as Cu and Fe only in some Pb-exposed brain samples, but not in controls. These two elements also exhibited correlation in some TEC spots, but only if Pb was also present. We also observed size-dependent trends, with the larger spots behaving differently than the smaller spots in both the exposed and the control.

Conclusion: This experiment revealed interesting interactions among trace elements in the brains of Pb-exposed and control AD-transgenic mice. Further work involve connecting the TEC spots with different elemental associations to biological and AD pathology structures to determine if elemental interaction underlie the AD pathology.

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