Depex mounting media

The rat brains from all four groups were sectioned coronally on a cryostat (Leica, Germany) and then they were stained with 0.1% Cresyl violet (CV) as described previously.41 The sections were then washed, dehydrated, cleared and mounted by cover slip using DePex mounting media (BDH, Batavia, IL). The slides were dried and the photomicrographs were taken by compound light microscope (Olympus, Japan) using 100×objectives (total magnification of 1000×). Dark, large dot stained cells were considered as pyknotic or tangle‐like cells were counted manually using Image‐J software (http://imagej.nih.gov/ij) and expressed as number of pyknotic cells per 1 mm² area. A minimum of 10 serial sections, with 30 different fields was used to count the number of pyknotic cells in each group (n = 6). Two researchers counted the cells separately and an average value was reported.

One of the aims of this study was to investigate whether short-term treatment of Cur or SLCP can protect the neuronal morphology, especially in hippocampal subfields and in the PFC area. To this end, the tissue from 5xFAD mice that were treated with Cur or SLCP was stained with 0.1% cresyl violet, as described previously [43 (link)]. The sections were washed, dehydrated, cleared, mounted, and coverslipped using DePex mounting media (BDH, Batavia, IL). The slides were dried, after which photomicrographs were taken using a compound light microscope (Olympus, Japan) with 100× objectives (total magnification of 1000×). The number of pyknotic, or tangle-like, cells were counted manually using Image-J software (http://imagej.nih.gov/ij), and were expressed as number of pyknotic cells per 100 µm² area. A minimum of 5 serial sections, each with 10 different fields, were used for counting the number of pyknotic cells in each group (n = 4), with the experimenters blinded to the group identity of the specimens being analyzed.

Trans 2-phenyl vinylboronic acid (TPVA) MIDA ester (catalog no: 699292-5G), Aβ42 peptide, curcumin (Cur, ~65% pure), 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropanol (HFIP), penicillin/streptomycin, fluoro-mount media and other accessory chemicals were procured from Sigma (St. Louis, MO, USA). Trans-beta-styryl-boronic acid (TBSA) was purchased from Alfa Aesar (97% pure, catalog no: H53227, Haverhill, MA). Aβ antibodies, such as 6E10 were purchased from Bio-Legend (San Diego, CA, USA). Mouse neuronal cell line and were purchased from American type culture collection (ATCC, Manassas, VA, USA). DePeX mounting media was purchased from BDH (Radnor, PA, USA). Minimum essential medium (MEM), fetal bovine serum (FBS) were purchased from GIBCO (Grand Island, NY, USA). Ninety-six-well plate was purchased from COSTAR Corning, (Millipore-Sigma, St. Louis, MO, USA). Horseradish peroxidase-conjugated secondary antibody was purchased from Santa Cruz Biotech (Santacruz, CA, USA). The GFAP antibody was procured from Cell Signaling Technology (Danvers, MA, USA) and Iba-1 was purchased from FUJIFILM Wako Chemicals U.S.A. Corporation (Richmond, VA, USA).