The previously studied Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein promoter-Npc1 cDNA transgene (GFAP-Npc1) which only expresses NPC1 in astrocytes further extended the lifespan of Npc1<sup>nmf164</sup> homozygotes on a BALB/cJ background (up to 600days).
We found hypo-phosphorylation of the intermediate filaments GFAP and vimentin and alterations in the assembly of these intermediate filaments in NPC1 mutant cells.