Fig. 1

Design of the study. 3xTg-AD or WT mice were treated with P021 or vehicle diet from gestational day 8 till their offspring/pups reached postnatal day 21, at which time the offspring were separated from their mothers and put on normal mouse chow. All of offspring (WT-Veh = 10; WT-P021 = 17; 3xTg-Veh = 12; 3xTg-P021 = 18) were subjected to elevated plus maze, novel object recognition test, and Morris water maze test consecutively from postnatal day 90. Half of the female animals (n = 7–8/group) were sacrificed at 4 months (n = 4/group) and the remaining animals at 22 months (n = 3–4/group) of age. Left cerebral hemisphere homogenate was used for biochemical analysis and right cerebral hemisphere for immunohistochemical. E8, embryonic day 8; P21, postnatal day 21; AD, Alzheimer’s disease; 3xTg, triple-transgenic; WT, wild type; Vh, vehicle diet; P021, peptidergic compound 021 diet