Credit: Alexandra Litvinchuk/Washington University
Lipid deposits (green) in brain immune cells (red) from mice with Alzheimer’s-like disease all but disappear (right) after the mice are treated with an experimental drug. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that a form of cholesterol known as cholesteryl esters builds up in the brains of mice with Alzheimer’s-like disease, and that clearing out the cholesteryl esters helps prevent brain damage and behavioral changes.