*2.1. Animals*

All animal use protocols were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at UNT HSC (Protocol #: 2009/10-50-A04, approved 09/1/2010). Groups of male and female GFAP-ApoE3 (B6.Cg-Tg(GFAP-*APOE*3)37Hol *APOE*tm1Unc/J) and GFAP-ApoE4 (B6.Cg-Tg(GFAP-*APOE*4)1Hol *APOE*tm1Unc/J) mice were obtained from The Jackson Laboratory (Bar Harbor, ME, USA) (catalog numbers 004633 and 004631; we started with a total of 187 mice, and recorded 14 and 10 deaths for the ApoE3 and ApoE4 respectively) at 2 months. These mice express the human apolipoprotein E3 or E4 under the control of the glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) promoter and do not express endogenous ApoE. The mice were group housed in standard housing conditions and received ad libitum access to food and water at an ambient temperature, under a 12-h light/dark cycle starting at 06:00.
