Fig. 2

Total cortical percentage area covered by HPτ-IR (AT8 antibody for hyperphosphorylated tau burden) and 4G8 immunoreactivity (Aβ-IR; for amyloid-β burden), total white matter sclerotic index (WM SI; measure of small vessel disease severity), and total age related white matter change scale (ARWMC; measure for white matter hyperintensities) scores in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) i.e., cognitively impaired, and controls. a, total HPτ-IR is significantly higher in AD as compared to controls. (ai), hyperphosphorylated tau in the form of neurofibrillary tangles and neuropil threads is immunopositive for AT8 antibody (neurofibrillary tangle - arrow, neuropil thread - arrow head) and (aii) the area covered by AT8 immunopositivity (shaded in red) was measured to calculate HPτ-IR. b, total Aβ-IR was significantly higher in AD as compared to controls. (bi), Aβ plaques/depositions are immunopositive for 4G8 antibody and (bii) the area covered by 4G8 immunopositivity (shaded in red; arrow indicates physiological APP that is not included in the analysis) was measured to calculate Aβ-IR. c, No differences were seen in the severity of small vessel disease as measured by sclerotic index (SI) between controls and AD. (ci), small white matter artery, histologically stained with H&E. (cii) example for calculating the SI: using VasCalc software [61] the internal (Dint) and external (Dext) diameters were measured three times to yield a SI value (for details see main text). d, Total age related white matter change (ARWMC) scores [60] were significantly higher in AD compared to controls. Examples of post mortem T2 MRI: (di), no WMH (ARWMC score 0) and (dii) confluent white matter hyper intensity in the parieto-occipital region (arrow head; ARWMC score 3). MR images were captured in sagittal plane. *,p < 0.05; ***,p < 0.001; scale bar, 20 μm, valid for ai and bi, 50 μm for ci