Although we also found strong co-localization of MFG-E8 staining with amyloid-β plaques in APP transgenic mice, we were unable to detect medin staining on parenchymal amyloid-β deposits in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease, possibly owing to the differences in astrocytic MFGE8 expression levels between mouse (high expression) and human (low expression) compared with the high expression by vascular cells in both species (Extended Data Fig. 9). Here, APP is linked to Alzheimer disease.