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Infiltration of old brains by T cells causes dysfunction of neural stem cells

Age-dependent changes in their environment can impair stem cells’ function. The finding that T cells infiltrate the brains of aged mice and cause dysfunction of neural stem cells reveals a potential therapeutic target.
  1. Allison M. Bond

    1. Allison M. Bond is in the Department of Neuroscience and at the Mahoney Institute for Neurosciences, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.

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  2. Hongjun Song

    1. Hongjun Song is in the Department of Neuroscience and at the Mahoney Institute for Neurosciences, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.

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In a healthy adult, tissue-specific stem cells replenish damaged tissue and sustain plasticity (the addition of new cells) in organs. In two regions of the adult brains of most mammals (the subventricular zone of the lateral ventricles and the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus), neural stem cells generate new neurons, which contribute to brain plasticity and cognition1. However, there is still debate over whether new neurons are commonly generated in the adult human brain. The proliferation of neural stem cells in mammals decreases with age, resulting in a reduction in the number of new neurons formed over time, and the mechanism underlying this change is poorly understood2. Writing in Nature, Dulken et al.3 examined how changes in the microenvironment of neural stem cells in the brains of old mice affect stem-cell proliferation.

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Nature 571, 178-179 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01832-0

References

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