Scientists Discover Blood Factors That Appear to Cause Aging in Brains of Mice

[TECH NEWS]

In a study published Sept. 1 in Nature, Stanford University School of Medicine scientists have found substances in the blood of old mice that makes young brains act older. These substances, whose levels rise with increasing age, appear to inhibit the brain’s ability to produce new nerve cells critical to memory and learning. The findings raise the question of whether it might be possible to shield the brain from aging by eliminating or mitigating the effects of these apparently detrimental blood-borne substances, or perhaps by identifying other blood-borne substances that exert rejuvenating effects on the brain but whose levels decline with age, said associate professor of neurology and neurological sciences Tony Wyss-Coray, PhD, the study’s senior author. Wyss-Coray is also associate director of the Center for Tissue Regeneration, Repair and Restoration at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System. It was long thought that the adult human brain produces no new nerve cells. But it is now known that in at least two places in mammalian brains, including those of mice and humans, such new cells continue to be formed throughout adulthood. One of these places is the dentate gyrus — part of a key brain region, the hippocampus, where new experiences are locked into memory.

 8/31/2011, Bruce Goldman/Stanford School of Medicine