The mitochondrial function was impaired in APP knockout mouse embryo fibroblast cells

The amyloid precursor protein (APP) is recognized as the source of Aβ, which plays an important role in Alzheimer’s disease. However, the biological function of APP is obscure. Previous studies showed that mitochondria could be a target of APP. In this work, APP knockout mouse embryo fibroblast (MEF) cells were used to test if APP plays any role in maintaining the mitochondrial function. As the result, APP knockout MEF cells (APP-/- cells) showed the abnormal mitochondrial function, including slower cell proliferation, lower mitochondrial membrane potential, lower intracellular ROS, higher mitochondrial membrane fluidity and lower cytochrome c oxidase activity than their wild-type counterparts. However, no change was found in the amount of mitochondria in MEF APP-/-cells.

Endogenously generated amyloid β increases membrane fluidity in neural 2a cells

The effect of endogenously generated amyloid β on membrane fluidity was investigated in Neural 2a cells stably expressing Swedish mutant amyloid precursor protein (APPswe). Membrane fluidity was studied by fluorescence polarizability using 1,6-Diphenyl-1,3,5-Hexatriene (DPH) as the fluorescence probe. It was found that the membrane fluidity in APPswe cells was significantly higher than that in its wild type counterparts. Alleviating the effect of amyloid β either by γ secretase activity inhibition or by amyloid antibody treatment decreased membrane fluidity, which indicated an important role of amyloid β in increasing membrane fluidity. Treatment using amyloid β channel blocker, tromethamine and NA4 suggested that channel formed by amyloid β on the cell membrane is a way through which amyloid β takes its membrane fluidizing effect.