Heat-map diagram showing gene expression profiles in five lines of mice.

<p>The figure represents data obtained using customized real-time RT-PCR array of 86 selected genes involved in brain APP (A) and cholesterol (B) metabolisms, intracellular vesicular trafficking (C) and cell death pathways (D) in the hippocampus and cerebellum of 7-week-old APP-Tg, Dhet, Npc1-null and ANPC mice compared with WT littermates. Each row represents a single gene and each column represents a mouse genotype combination. Expression levels are colored red for significant up-regulations, green for significant down-regulations and grey for no alteration compared with WT mice. As shown, the major changes in gene expression occurred in the hippocampus and cerebellum of Npc1-null and ANPC mice while changes in APP-Tg and Dhet mice are limited to only a few genes mainly in the hippocampus. A fold difference of ≥1.2 with a <i>p</i><0.05 was considered to be a significant dysregulation.