Are they still recovering?
The growth of new neurons in the brain can continue until old age
Sergey Vasiliev, Naked Science
The question of "whether nerve cells are restored" – more precisely, about the ability of the adult brain to form new neurons – can be called one of the most famous in modern science. Recent studies show that in some parts of the brain, nerve cells can actually appear in adulthood. We are talking primarily about the hippocampus, which plays a key role in the integration of sensory experience, the work of emotions and memory.
The authors of a new article, Adult hippocampal neurogenesis is abundant in neurologically healthy subjects and drops sharply in patients with Alzheimer's disease, published in the journal Nature Medicine, have discovered new cells in the hippocampus even in elderly people. Apparently, their growth in a healthy brain can continue into old age, unless it is prevented by Alzheimer's disease or other neurodegenerative processes. Scientists believe that previously it was not possible to reliably detect this due to various imperfections in search methods.
Maria Llorens-Martín and her colleagues from the Autonomous University of Madrid cultured "in vitro" samples of healthy hippocampal nervous tissue obtained from thirteen deceased donors aged 43 to 87 years. Young neurons were formed even in the "oldest" samples, although their growth rate clearly decreased with age. In the brain tissues of 40- and 70-year-old people, scientists counted 40,000 and 30,000 such cells per cubic millimeter, respectively.
A sample of hippocampal tissue of the brain of a healthy person who died at 68 years old; not yet fully mature neurons are associated with red fluorescent tags / © CSIC, Nature
After completing the work with healthy brain samples, the authors turned to tissues obtained from patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease – 52 people aged 52 to 97 years. Surprisingly, young neurons were noticed even in the oldest of them. On the other hand, the rate of appearance of new cells in such people still remained lower, and even in the early stages of the disease they ranged from half to 2/3 of the level characteristic of a healthy brain.
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