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Complex and regional-specific changes in the morphological complexity of GFAP+ astrocytes in middle-aged mice
- Source :
- Neurobiology of Aging. 100:59-71
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Elsevier BV, 2021.
-
Abstract
- During aging, alterations in astrocyte phenotype occur in areas associated with age-related cognitive decline, including hippocampus. Previous work reported subregion-specific changes in surface, volume, and soma size of hippocampal astrocytes during physiological aging. Herein we extensively analyzed, by morphometric analysis, fine morphological features of GFAP+ astrocytes in young (6-month-old) and middle-aged (14-month-old) male mice. We observed remarkable heterogeneity in the astrocytic response to aging in distinct subfields and along the dorsoventral axis of hippocampus and in entorhinal cortex. In middle-aged mice dorsal granule cell and molecular layers, but not hilus, astrocytes underwent remarkable increase in their morphological complexity. These changes were absent in ventral Dentate Gyrus (DG). In addition, in entorhinal cortex, the major input to dorsal DG, astrocytes underwent remarkable atrophic changes in middle-aged mice. Since dorsal DG, and not ventral DG, is involved in cognitive functions, these findings appear worth of further evaluation. Our findings also suggest an additional level of complexity in the structural changes associated with brain aging.
- Subjects :
- 0301 basic medicine
Aging
General Neuroscience
Dentate gyrus
Neurogenesis
Hippocampus
Hippocampal formation
Biology
Granule cell
Entorhinal cortex
03 medical and health sciences
030104 developmental biology
0302 clinical medicine
medicine.anatomical_structure
medicine
Neurology (clinical)
Geriatrics and Gerontology
Cognitive decline
Neuroscience
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
Developmental Biology
Astrocyte
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 01974580
- Volume :
- 100
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Neurobiology of Aging
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........fefea1a0b890d634685daada05f54e6b