Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

BRAIN AGING

Astrocytic traffic jams in the aging brain

Nature Aging volume 2, pages 681–683 (2022)Cite this article

Subjects

Lee and colleagues reveal a previously unrecognized population of astrocytes in the aged brain with disrupted proteostatic signaling that generates defects in astrocyte morphology, protein trafficking and synapse maintenance in the aging hippocampus.

In their study, Lee et al. used single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) in 2-year-old mouse hippocampi to identify age-related alterations in astrocyte function. This endeavor revealed three distinct clusters of astrocytic cell populations, described as clusters 2, 3 and 6. The authors found that cluster 6 represents a novel population of astrocytes present exclusively in the aged hippocampus that exhibits upregulated expression of genes related to astrocyte homeostasis, synaptogenesis and synapse elimination. The existence of this population raised the question of whether these cells represent a functionally distinct population of aged astrocytes and, if so, whether they contribute to the circuit defects that underlie cognitive decline in the aging brain.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: A genetically and functionally unique population of hippocampal astrocytes stemming from reduced astrocytic mTOR and proteasome activity appears with advancing age.

References

  1. Morrison, J. H. & Baxter, M. G. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 13, 240–250 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Rapp, P. R. & Gallagher, M. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 93, 9926–9930 (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Christopherson, K. S. et al. Cell 120, 421–433 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Chung, W.-S., Allen, N. J. & Eroglu, C. Cold Spring Harb. Perspect. Biol. 7, a020370 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Lee, E. et al. Nat. Aging https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-022-00257-1 (2022).

  6. Bernardinelli, Y. et al. Curr. Biol. 24, 1679–1688 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Jung, C. H., Ro, S.-H., Cao, J., Otto, N. M. & Kim, D.-H. FEBS Lett. 584, 1287–1295 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Kocaturk, N. M. & Gozuacik, D. Front. Cell Dev. Biol. 6, 128 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Su, K.-H. & Dai, C. Bioessays 39, 1600268 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Wilkinson, J. E. et al. Aging Cell 11, 675–682 (2012).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Baldwin, K. T. & Eroglu, C. Curr. Opin. Neurobiol. 45, 113–120 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Jankowsky, J. L. et al. Hum. Mol. Genet. 13, 159–170 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cell Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA

    Ryan Baumert, Nicholas Brose & Cagla Eroglu

  2. Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA

    Cagla Eroglu

  3. Duke Institute for Brain Sciences (DIBS), Durham, NC, USA

    Cagla Eroglu

  4. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Cagla Eroglu

Authors
  1. Ryan Baumert
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Nicholas Brose
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Cagla Eroglu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cagla Eroglu.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Baumert, R., Brose, N. & Eroglu, C. Astrocytic traffic jams in the aging brain. Nat Aging 2, 681–683 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-022-00270-4

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-022-00270-4

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing