The memory loss of the rats was reversed by injecting them with brain fluid taken from younger rats, which increases hope for future dementia treatment.
The researchers extracted cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), the fluid that washes the brain and spinal cord tissue of all vertebrates, from young rats (10 weeks old).
They then injected cerebrospinal fluid, which contains some growth factor protein that contributes to normal brain development, into the brain of aged rats (18 months).
The findings, published in a new study in Nature, demonstrate the potentially stimulating properties of young cerebrospinal fluid in the aging of the human brain, not just the brains of rats.
Previous studies have shown that cerebrospinal fluid production significantly decreases as we age, so fluid pumping in the elderly can also lead to better memory capacity in the elderly.
The study’s author, Professor Tony Wyss-Coray, from Stanford University in California, said: “Brain aging is underpinned by dementia and neurodegenerative diseases, which impose a huge burden on society.”
The memory improvements seen in aged rats that received cerebrospinal fluid from younger animals could be attributed to growth factors shown to restore neuronal function.
The results demonstrate the potential properties of cerebrospinal fluid rejuvenation for brain aging.
The placement of chronic fatigue syndrome from young rats to adult rats restored memory in older animals by stimulating the production of myelin, a fatty cover that insulates brain neurons, hyperexcitable cells that transmits information to body parts via electrical signals. and improve our learning and memory abilities.
The team then used RNA sequencing to determine how cerebrospinal fluid treatment altered gene expression in the hippocampus, the brain’s memory center.
The hippocampus is one of the few parts of the brain where new neurons are formed. Infusion of young cerebrospinal fluid in older rats has been shown to increase the stimulation of cells called oligodendrocytes, which produce oligodendrocytes.
Oligodendrocytes make an insulating layer of myelin, which also insulates parts of neurons called axons that carry nerve impulses out of the cell body.
The authors looked at signaling pathways activated by young cerebrospinal fluid.
They identified a ‘transcription factor’, a protein that helps turn on or ‘off’ certain genes by binding to nearby DNA, known as SRF, where it mediates the effects of small cerebrospinal fluid in oligodendrocyte precursor cells.
SRF expression was reduced in the hippocampus of older rats. The researchers also identified a growth factor known as FGF17 as a candidate for stimulating SRF signaling. And FGF17 could be a therapeutic target for human therapies.
Source: Daily Mail
Source: Arabic RT
