Neuroinflammation and amyloid-beta 40 are associated with reduced serotonin transporter (SERT) activity in a transgenic model of familial Alzheimer’s disease

Autoradiography of SERT binding sites. a Quantification of [3H]DASB binding in the neocortex of aging wild-type (WT) and APPswe/PS1dE9 transgenic (TG) mice. Values represent the mean specific binding of [3H]DASB ±？SEM in six animals/group. For each animal, binding was determined in six consecutive sections containing the frontal, parietal and occipital cortex, and two consecutive sections containing the temporal cortex. Reduced SERT density was observed in the frontal and parietal cortices of APPswe/PS1dE9 vs. WT control animals, at 24 and 18？months of age respectively. *p？<？0.05, **p？<？0.01 vs. age-matched WT, two-way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni posttests. b Representative autoradiograms of SERT binding sites. Images are shown at lateral 0.96–1.20？mm, containing the parietal and occipital cortex. The bar represents a scale of black and white image density, calibrated in fmol/mg of tissue equivalent. Levels of specific binding were calculated following subtraction of non-specific binding (NSB) from total binding images. NSB was determined with 10？μM paroxetine HCl hemihydrate and was indistinguishable from backgroun