Functional cholinergic damage develops with amyloid accumulation in young adult APPswe/PS1dE9 transgenic mice.

We investigated the functional characteristics of pre- and postsynaptic cholinergic transmission in APPswe/PS1dE9 double transgenic mice at a young age (7-10 weeks) before the onset of amyloid plaque formation and at adult age (5-6 months) at its onset. We compared brain slices from cerebral cortex and hippocampus with amyloid deposits to slices from striatum with no amyloid plaques by 6 months of age. In young transgenic mice we found no impairments of preformed and newly synthesized [(3)H]-ACh release, indicating intact releasing machinery and release turnover, respectively.