Fig. 4

Activation of PIEZO1 mediates microglial clearance of Aβ plaques in 5xFAD mice. A A Schematic for in vivo treatments of 5-month-old 5xFAD mice with 1% DMSO in saline (VEH) or 0.25 µg Yoda1 with total of ten daily 5 µl infusions over 12-day period through intracranial ventricular cannula. Created with BioRender.com. Representative immunofluorescence images of B microglia (IBA1, green) and C Aβ plaques (WO2, magenta). Scale bar 200 µm. D–E Corresponding quantifications of immunoreactive areas in hippocampus and cortex. Representative maximum intensity projections of confocal z-stack images of double-immunostaining for F microglia (IBA1, green) and G Aβ plaques (WO2, magenta), with H merged images showing colocalization (white). Scale bar 20 µm. I Quantification of overlap of IBA1 and WO2 in small, medium, and large Aβ plaques. N = 5 VEH, N = 6 Yoda1 mice. Statistical outliers removed. Unpaired t-test. Significance ***p < 0.001, *p < 0.05. Data as mean ± SEM. See also Additional file 1: Fig. S4