Candidate molecular pathways of white matter vulnerability in the brain of normal aging rhesus monkeys.

ABSTRACT: Mammalian aging is associated with decline in cognitive functions. Studies searching for a cause of cognitive aging initially focused on neuronal loss but quantitative investigations of rat, monkey, and human brain using stereology demonstrated that in normal aging, unlike in neurodegenerative disease, neurons are not lost. Instead, electron microscopic and MRI studies in normal aging monkeys revealed age-related damage to myelin sheaths, loss of axons, and reduction in white matter volume which correlates with cognitive impairments. However, little is known about the cause of myelin defects or associated axon loss. The present study investigates the effect of age on signaling pathways between oligodendroglia and neurons using a custom PCR array to assess the expression of 87 genes of inte

SUBMITTER: Robinson AA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5832663 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature