To find out why, she then employed an RNA sequencing approach that would show her which genes were being expressed more in response to contact with young CSF. “It’s very different from blood.”įirst Iram showed that a week of infusions of CSF from young mice into the brains of old mice could boost the performance of old mice on tests of memory. “With CSF we’re looking at the actual substance that the brain is exposed to,” she said. Considering the fluid’s intimate contact with the brain, Iram reasoned it might be the perfect place to look for factors that could foster healthy brain aging. Previous research has shown that CSF’s contents change as we grow older - factors that promote cell growth begin to dwindle and inflammatory proteins that can be harmful increase in number. Study lead author Tal Iram collected tiny samples of cerebrospinal fluid from mice to study its effects on brain aging.ĬSF, which is partially comprised of components from the blood and fully replenished four to five times daily, is responsible for nourishing the brain, removing waste products and helping to distribute signaling molecules, in addition to cushioning the brain inside our skulls. She and colleagues mimicked this approach but swapped blood out for CSF. Iram was inspired by previous experiments showing that blood transfusions from young mice had positive impacts on neurons in the brains of aged mice. The research was led by Tal Iram, a Wu Tsai Neuro interdisciplinary postdoctoral scholar in the Wyss-Coray lab. Read our recent Q&A with Iram, who is a Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Scholar. “We’ve also started to pinpoint which components of the CSF are responsible for the improvement.” Chen Distinguished Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford and director of the Knight Initiative. “This study shows that there’s something in young CSF that can make the brain function better,” said Tony Wyss-Coray, the senior author of the new paper who is D. The findings open the door for potential new therapeutic targets for aging-related brain diseases like Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. Young CSF, they found, could improve memory and cognition in older mice, through effects on the development and function of oligodendrocytes, brain cells that wrap neurons in a fatty, insulating sheath, called myelin, which helps them send long-range signals. Now, with a new study published in Nature, researchers at the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute are helping to show that the cerebrospinal fluid that bathes our brains holds clues to healthy brain aging, a major focus of the new Phil and Penny Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience anchored at Wu Tsai Neuro. Unfortunately, though, modern doctors have little recourse when aging takes its toll on the brain. In the past century, modern medicine has helped drive up average life expectancy in the United States and other developed countries by equipping doctors with the tools and know-how to manage our blood pressure, vaccinate us against dangerous viruses, swap out malfunctioning body parts with prosthetics or transplants, and much more.
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