Basic Science and Pathogenesis.

Background: Dysregulation of cholesterol metabolism contributes to the increase of cerebral vascular diseases, favoring the development of dementia. In this sense, high levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) are considered protective against the outcomes associated with cardiovascular diseases. However, little is known about the effect of plasma HDL levels to alterations of cerebral volume in non-vascular AD and vascular AD individuals.

The laminar position, morphology, and gene expression profiles of cortical astrocytes are influenced by time of birth from ventricular/subventricular progenitors.

Astrocytes that reside in superficial (SL) and deep cortical layers have distinct molecular profiles and morphologies, which may underlie specific functions. Here, we demonstrate that the production of SL and deep layer (DL) astrocyte populations from neural progenitor cells in the mouse is temporally regulated. Lineage tracking following in utero and postnatal electroporation with PiggyBac (PB) EGFP and birth dating with EdU and FlashTag, showed that apical progenitors produce astrocytes during late embryogenesis (E16.