Credit: Yang Shi
Parts of the brain important for memory have atrophied in a mouse carrying the high-risk Alzheimer's gene ApoE4, leaving a large fluid-filled hole in the brain (white area in photo at left), compared with a much smaller one in a mouse without the gene (right). A new study led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that the presence of ApoE4 exacerbates brain damage related to the Alzheimer's protein tau.