Growing senior may come witha few benefit , but a wild memory is not generally see one of them . As the old saying goes : with sapience and wrinkles comeshippocampal shrinking , leading to increase forgetfulness and areduced abilityto read and recall new information .
However , a new study publish in the journalNaturemay carry a glimmer of Bob Hope for those of us who lose our keys more than we used to . By transplanting cerebrospinal fluid from the brains of young mouse into elderly ones , investigator set up that they could trigger the production of myelin in the elderly rodent brain – and thereby restitute the piffling pensioners ’ recollection ability .
Cerebrospinal fluid " bathes the brain tissue and contains several protein maturation factors necessary for normal psyche ontogenesis , ” write Miriam Zawadzki and Maria K. Lehtinen , neuroscientists at theLehtinen Laboratoryat Boston Children ’s Hospital , in anaccompanying articlefor Nature .
“ The [ study ] source therefore examined whether treatment with the new [ cerebrospinal fluid ] affected the proliferation and maturation of oligodendrocyte precursor cell ( OPCs ) , ” they continue – touch on to cells that develop into insularism for the brainiac ’s nerve fibers , known as axons . Neither Zawadzki nor Lehtinen were directly involved in the bailiwick .
We get laid what you ’re thinking : how do you appraise a black eye ’s recall ability ? Well , the answer , in this case , is “ with great difficulty to the mouse , ” as the experiment come in the shape of a fear conditioning test . This is jolly much what it vocalize like : the researchers trained the mice to assort a particular audiovisual clew with pain – specifically , a small electric shock in their understructure . A day later on , the cue was repeated , and again three calendar week after that . If the black eye froze in fear , the researcher find out that they still remember the original lesson .
The study seek to serve two questions : first , whether an infusion of unseasoned cerebrospinal fluid could better recall in erstwhile mice – and if so , whether it would be good than an artificial version of the same hooey – and 2nd , what was bump on a biologic layer to produce their consequence .
The first reply was a resounding yes – on both count . The researchers “ found that young [ cerebrospinal fluid ] more than doubled the percentage of OPCs actively proliferating in the genus Hippocampus of old animals , ” note Zawadzki and Lehtinen . In terms of freezing mice , this translated to twice the proportion of firm rodents with young cerebrospinal fluid over those with hokey cerebrospinal fluid – imply that when it come to nous succus , veridical is best .
But the big head iswhy – and to answer this , the team turned to RNA sequencing . This proficiency appropriate them to picture out which cistron in the genus Hippocampus had been most affected by the procedure , give them a clue as to what was going on .
They before long home in on one molecule in particular : fibroblast maturation factor 17 , or Fgf17 . This protein is one of many that set off the psyche ’s OPCs to produce myelin – the layer of fatty insulation that surround and protects the nerve cell . Fgf17 is “ robustly express ” in immature mouse neuron , the team found , and lessen as the mouse age . It ’s also been shown to boost OPC growth in cultured rat neurons – and if blocked in young mice , seems to impair brain part .
intelligibly , this is an important gene when it comes to cognition and retentiveness – and their discovery that Fgf17 lives in cerebrospinal fluid and can aid recall in this way has “ broken ground in the playing area of brain health and ageing , ” write Zawadzki and Lehtinen .
“ Not only does the subject field imply that FGF17 has electric potential as a therapeutical target , but it also suggests that road of drug administration that allow therapeutics to instantly reach the [ cerebrospinal fluid ] could be beneficial in care for dementedness , ” they conclude . “ Any such treatments will be hugely helpful in supporting our ageing population . ”
