Fig. 2

Expression of α-dystrobrevin (α-DB) in the grey matter of occipital lobe in young, old and CAA brains. Immunoreactivity for α-DB appeared greatest around cells with morphology similar to astrocytes in young cases (a, orange arrows) but also outlined blood vessels in all cases (b, c, green arrows), most notably in CAA cases with punctate staining consistent with astrocyte endfeet (d, red arrows). Scale bars a–c = 100 µm, g = 20 µm. Immunohistochemistry for COL4 revealed no notable differences in vessel staining (e–g, green arrows) or vessel density (h) between young, old or CAA cases. Scale bars e–g = 100 µm. When normalised against vessel density, the percentage of vessels positively stained for α-DB was significantly higher in CAA cases when compared to both old and young cases (i). Each data point in h and i represents overall mean values (n = 4) from each case. Data points labelled with # were identified as outliers and excluded from analysis