Inner blood‐retinal barrier alterations associated with vascular amyloidosis in MCI and AD patients

Blood‐brain barrier (BBB) breakdown in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is linked to cerebral amyloid‐beta (Aβ) accumulation and cognitive decline. Previously, we identified substantial retinal pericyte loss along with vascular amyloidosis in mild cognitively impaired (MCI) and AD patients. In double transgenic APPSWE/PS1∆E9 (ADtg) mice, we further demonstrated substantial retinal capillary degeneration and microvascular leakage in comparison to wild type (WT) mice. Here, we sought to expand our investigation of inner blood‐retinal barrier (iBRB) integrity in relation to retinal and cerebral pathological benchmarks in MCI and AD patients compared to cognitively normal (CN) controls.