It is widely known that the degeneration of neural circuits is prominent in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients. The reciprocal connectivity of the medial septum (MS) and hippocampus, which constitutes the septo-hippocampo-septal (SHS) loop, is known to be associated with learning and memory. Despite the importance of the reciprocal projections between the MS and hippocampus in AD, the alteration of bidirectional connectivity between two structures has not yet been investigated at the mesoscale level. In this study, we adopted AD animal model, five familial AD mutations (5XFAD) mice, and anterograde and retrograde tracers, BDA and DiI, respectively, to visualize the pathology-related changes in topographical connectivity of the SHS loop in the 5XFAD brain. By comparing 4.5-month-old and 14-month-old 5XFAD mice, we successfully identified key circuit components of the SHS loop altered in 5XFAD brains. Remarkably, the SHS loop began to degenerate in 4.5-month-old 5XFAD mice before the onset of neuronal loss. The impairment of connectivity between the MS and hippocampus was accelerated in 14-month-old 5XFAD mice. These results demonstrate, for the first time, topographical evidence for the degradation of the interconnection between the MS and hippocampus at the mesoscale level in a mouse model of AD. Our results provide structural and functional insights into the interconnectivity of the MS and hippocampus, which will inform the use and development of various therapeutic approaches that target neural circuits for the treatment of AD.

Scientific community has been elaborating to better understand the observed climate and its variations, and to improve the capability for predicting future climate. Many modeling groups participating in the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project (CMIP) have been working towards multi-model ensemble approach that have become a standard technique for projecting future climate and for assessing associated uncertainties to deal with intrinsic shortcomings of climate models. Within this context, the National Institute of Meteorological Sciences/Korea Meteorological Administration (NIMS/KMA) has developed the KMA Advanced Community Earth-system model (K-ACE) under KMA-Met Office collaboration for climate research. This paper provides general descriptions of the first generation K-ACE model including the coupling strategy, as well as preliminary evaluations of the model performance in mean climate fields. The first generation K-ACE model appears to capture the mean climatology and the inter-annual variability of the observed climate. Horizontal distributions and the variability of the surface and pressure-level variables agree well with observations with correlation coefficients of 0.88-0.99 and 0.69-0.99, respectively. Measured in terms of performance index between the observed and simulated fields, the K-ACE performance is comparable with those of 29 CMIP5 models. This study also identifies key weaknesses of the K-ACE in the present-day climate. Improving these deficiencies will be a topic of future studies. The NIMS/KMA will employ the K-ACE model to contribute to the CMIP6 experiment.

No abstract

No abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by cognitive decline. Several recent studies demonstrated that impaired adult neurogenesis could contribute to AD-related cognitive impairment. Adult subventricular zone (SVZ) neurogenesis, which occurs in the lateral ventricles, plays a crucial role in structural plasticity and neural circuit maintenance. Alterations in adult SVZ neurogenesis are early events in AD, and impaired adult neurogenesis is influenced by the accumulation of intracellular Aβ. Although Aβ-overexpressing transgenic 5XFAD mice are an AD animal model well representative of Aβ-related pathologies in the brain, the characterization of altered adult SVZ neurogenesis following AD progression in 5XFAD mice has not been thoroughly examined. Therefore, we validated the characterization of adult SVZ neurogenesis changes with AD progression in 2-, 4-, 8-, and 11-month-old male 5XFAD mice. We first investigated the Aβ accumulation in the SVZ using the 4G8 antibody. We observed intracellular Aβ accumulation in the SVZ of 2-month-old 5XFAD mice. In addition, 5XFAD mice exhibited significantly increased Aβ deposition in the SVZ with age. Next, we performed a histological analysis to investigate changes in various phases of adult neurogenesis, such as quiescence, proliferation, and differentiation, in SVZ. Compared to age-matched wild-type (WT) mice, quiescent neural stem cells were reduced in 5XFAD mice from 2-11 months of age. Moreover, proliferative neural stem cells were decreased in 5XFAD mice from 2 to 8 months of age. Furthermore, differentiations of neuroblasts were diminished in 5XFAD mice from 2-11 months of age. Intriguingly, we found that adult SVZ neurogenesis was reduced with aging in healthy mice. Taken together, our results revealed that impairment of adult SVZ neurogenesis appears with aging or AD progression.