United States: A new study with mice found that some brain cells who are more affected by aging than others. This could really help explain why people’s chances of getting brain diseases like dementia and Alzheimer’s increase as they somehow get older. The study was published on January 1 in the journal Nature.
It is a medical fact that aging is the best predictor of Alzheimer’s disease and many other terrible disorders of the brain. These results give a clear road map for which brain cells might be most vulnerable to aging,” said Dr. Richard Hodes, director of the National Institute on Aging, in an NIA news release.
As reported by the HealthDay, “This new map may change the way scientists look at the ageing process in the brain and help them chart directions on how more treatments can be developed for diseases that affect the brain as people age,” Hodes said.
Taking advantage of new methods of genetic mapping and applying them to the brain material, scientists compared the cells of 2-month-old “young” and 18-month-old “senior” mice.
More precisely, they focused on the genetic activity of cells in sixteen areas of the brain accounting for 35% of total volume in the mice brains.
This is because through the course of the study, researchers discovered that aging reduces the chance of gene activity in the brain cells.
For instance, aging decreased production of newborn neurons in at least three regions of the brain – the hippocampus, the cortex, and the hypothalamus – all areas that are related to learning and memory.
On the contrary, aging enhanced the activities of the genes involved in immune and inflammation response.
Aging-sensitive cell seemed to be focused around the third ventricle, which is a key pathway by which spinal fluid can travel through a part of the brain called the hypothalamus. This gland also secretes hormones that lead to the regulation of balance and other basic body needs such as temperature regulation, respiration rate, sleep, thirst and appetite.
These observations are consistent with prior work exploring the connection between aging and metabolism, say scientists.
For instance, studies of those slimming diets like intermittent fasting have been found to have a positive effect on life expectancy.
That could be explained by the age-sensitive neurons present in the hypothalamus whose main function is to release hunger and energy production hormones according to the researchers.