Amyloid precursor protein mRNA was localized in frozen sections from normal and experimentally lesioned adult mouse brain and from normal and aneuploid fetal mouse brain by in situ hybridization with a M"S-labeled mouse cDNA probe. The
MATERIALS AND METHODSTissue Preparation. Adult C57BL/6J and BALB/cJ mice were anesthetized with Avertin, then perfused transcardially with isotonic phosphate-buffered saline (PBS), and then immediately perfused with 4% (wt/vol) paraformaldehyde in PBS. The brains were removed, postfixed for 2 hr at 40C in fresh 4% (wt/vol) paraformaldehyde in PBS, and incubated overnight in 20% (wt/vol) sucrose in PBS for subsequent cryoprotection. The brains were then frozen rapidly in isopentane and dry ice. Ten-micrometer sections were cut with a cryostat, thaw-mounted onto slides coated with Denhardt's solution (0.02% polyvinylpyrrolidone/0.02% Ficoll/0.02% bovine serum albumin), and stored at -70°C.Adult BALB/cJ mice, anesthetized with halothane (3%) and mounted in a stereotactic apparatus, received unilateral injections of ibotenic acid (5 ikg in 0.5 1A of saline) into the hippocampal formation with a Hamilton microsyringe (16). Electrolytic lesion of the medial septum was used to remove cholinergic afferents to the hippocampus (17). The animals were allowed to recover for 7 days before transcardial perfusion as described above.The Tsl9 and Ts16 mouse fetuses were obtained by using a mating scheme described in detail in Gearhart et al. (18