Little exercise, big effects: reversing aging and infection-induced memory deficits, and underlying processes.

ABSTRACT: We have previously found that healthy aged rats are more likely to suffer profound memory impairments following a severe bacterial infection than are younger adult rats. Such a peripheral challenge is capable of producing a neuroinflammatory response, and in the aged brain this response is exaggerated and prolonged. Normal aging primes, or sensitizes, microglia, and this appears to be the source of this amplified inflammatory response. Among the outcomes of this exaggerated neuroinflammatory response are impairments in synaptic plasticity and reductions of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), both of which have been associated with cognitive impairments. Since it has been shown that physical exercise increases BDNF mRNA in the hippocampus, the present study examined voluntary exercise

SUBMITTER: Barrientos RM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3171131 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature