Clasmatodendrotic astrocytes were found both in human post-mortem samples122,598 and in APP-SweDI (Swedish-Dutch-Iowa mutation of APP) expressing mice.599 The interlaminar astrocytes (which populate brains of high primates and are not present in other species32,33) are highly vulnerable to AD pathology: at the advanced stages of the disease interlaminar astrocytes disappear,600 although how this impacts on the disease pathophysiology remains unknown. The gene discussed is APP; the disease is Alzheimer disease.