Kira I. Mosher

The ageing systemic milieu negatively regulates neurogenesis and cognitive function.

In the central nervous system, ageing results in a precipitous decline in adult neural stem/progenitor cells and neurogenesis, with concomitant impairments in cognitive functions. Interestingly, such impairments can be ameliorated through systemic perturbations such as exercise. Here, using heterochronic parabiosis we show that blood-borne factors present in the systemic milieu can inhibit or promote adult neurogenesis in an age-dependent fashion in mice. Accordingly, exposing a young mouse to an old systemic environment or to plasma from old mice decreased synaptic plasticity, and impaired contextual fear conditioning and spatial learning and memory. We identify chemokines—including CCL11 (also known as eotaxin)—the plasma levels of which correlate with reduced neurogenesis in heterochronic parabionts and aged mice, and the levels of which are increased in the plasma and cerebrospinal fluid of healthy ageing humans. Lastly, increasing peripheral CCL11 chemokine levels in vivo in young mice decreased adult neurogenesis and impaired learning and memory. Together our data indicate that the decline in neurogenesis and cognitive impairments observed during ageing can be in part attributed to changes in blood-borne factors.

Young blood reverses age-related impairments in cognitive function and synaptic plasticity in mice

As human lifespan increases, a greater fraction of the population is suffering from age-related cognitive impairments, making it important to elucidate a means to combat the effects of aging. Here we report that exposure of an aged animal to young blood can counteract and reverse pre-existing effects of brain aging at the molecular, structural, functional and cognitive level. Genome-wide microarray analysis of heterochronic parabionts—in which circulatory systems of young and aged animals are connected—identified synaptic plasticity–related transcriptional changes in the hippocampus of aged mice. Dendritic spine density of mature neurons increased and synaptic plasticity improved in the hippocampus of aged heterochronic parabionts. At the cognitive level, systemic administration of young blood plasma into aged mice improved age-related cognitive impairments in both contextual fear conditioning and spatial learning and memory. Structural and cognitive enhancements elicited by exposure to young blood are mediated, in part, by activation of the cyclic AMP response element binding protein (Creb) in the aged hippocampus. Our data indicate that exposure of aged mice to young blood late in life is capable of rejuvenating synaptic plasticity and improving cognitive function.

Neural progenitor cells regulate microglia functions and activity

We found mouse neural progenitor cells (NPCs) to have a secretory protein profile distinct from other brain cells and to modulate microglial activation, proliferation and phagocytosis. NPC-derived vascular endothelial growth factor was necessary and sufficient to exert at least some of these effects in mice. Thus, neural precursor cells may not only be shaped by microglia, but also regulate microglia functions and activity.

Human umbilical cord plasma proteins revitalize hippocampal function in aged mice

Ageing drives changes in neuronal and cognitive function, the decline of which is a major feature of many neurological disorders. The hippocampus, a brain region subserving roles of spatial and episodic memory and learning, is sensitive to the detrimental effects of ageing at morphological and molecular levels. With advancing age, synapses in various hippocampal subfields exhibit impaired long-term potentiation, an electrophysiological correlate of learning and memory. At the molecular level, immediate early genes are among the synaptic plasticity genes that are both induced by long-term potentiation and downregulated in the aged brain. In addition to revitalizing other aged tissues, exposure to factors in young blood counteracts age-related changes in these central nervous system parameters, although the identities of specific cognition-promoting factors or whether such activity exists in human plasma remains unknown. We hypothesized that plasma of an early developmental stage, namely umbilical cord plasma, provides a reservoir of such plasticity-promoting proteins. Here we show that human cord plasma treatment revitalizes the hippocampus and improves cognitive function in aged mice. Tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases 2 (TIMP2), a blood-borne factor enriched in human cord plasma, young mouse plasma, and young mouse hippocampi, appears in the brain after systemic administration and increases synaptic plasticity and hippocampal-dependent cognition in aged mice. Depletion experiments in aged mice revealed TIMP2 to be necessary for the cognitive benefits conferred by cord plasma. We find that systemic pools of TIMP2 are necessary for spatial memory in young mice, while treatment of brain slices with TIMP2 antibody prevents long-term potentiation, arguing for previously unknown roles for TIMP2 in normal hippocampal function. Our findings reveal that human cord plasma contains plasticity-enhancing proteins of high translational value for targeting ageing- or disease-associated hippocampal dysfunction.

Preclinical Assessment of Young Blood Plasma for Alzheimer Disease

Importance Alzheimer disease (AD) pathology starts long before clinical symptoms manifest, and there is no therapy to treat, delay, or prevent the disease. A shared blood circulation between 2 mice (aka parabiosis) or repeated injections of young blood plasma (plasma from 2- to 3-month-old mice) into old mice has revealed benefits of young plasma on synaptic function and behavior. However, to our knowledge, the potential benefit of young blood has not been tested in preclinical models of neurodegeneration or AD. Objectives To determine whether young blood plasma ameliorates pathology and cognition in a mouse model for AD and could be a possible future treatment for the disease. Design, Setting, and Participants In this preclinical study, mice that harbor a human mutant APP gene, which causes familial AD, were aged to develop AD-like disease including accumulation of amyloid plaques, loss of synaptic and neuronal proteins, and behavioral deficits. The initial parabiosis studies were done in 2010, and the final studies were conducted in 2014. Alzheimer disease model mice were then treated either by surgically connecting them with a young healthy mouse, thus providing a shared blood circulation through parabiosis, or through repeated injections of plasma from young mice. Main Outcomes and Measures Neuropathological parameters and changes in hippocampal gene expression in response to the treatment were assessed. In addition, cognition was tested in AD model mice intravenously injected with young blood plasma. Results Aged mutant amyloid precursor protein mice with established disease showed a near complete restoration in levels of synaptic and neuronal proteins after exposure to young blood in parabiosis (synaptophysin P = .02; calbindin P = .02) or following intravenous plasma administration (synaptophysin P < .001; calbindin P = .14). Amyloid plaques were not affected, but the beneficial effects in neurons in the hippocampus were accompanied by a reversal of abnormal extracellular receptor kinase signaling (P = .05), a kinase implicated in AD. Moreover, young plasma administration was associated with improved working memory (P = .01) and associative memory (P = .02) in amyloid precursor protein mice. Conclusions and Relevance Factors in young blood have the potential to ameliorate disease in a model of AD.

Go with your gut: microbiota meet microglia

Discovering the environmental factors that control microglia is key to understanding and managing brain health. A new study finds that microbiota in the gut are essential for regulating microglia maturation and activation.

Microglial complement receptor 3 regulates brain Aβ levels through secreted proteolytic activity

Recent genetic evidence supports a link between microglia and the complement system in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In this study, we uncovered a novel role for the microglial complement receptor 3 (CR3) in the regulation of soluble &bgr;-amyloid (A&bgr;) clearance independent of phagocytosis. Unexpectedly, ablation of CR3 in human amyloid precursor protein–transgenic mice results in decreased, rather than increased, A&bgr; accumulation. In line with these findings, cultured microglia lacking CR3 are more efficient than wild-type cells at degrading extracellular A&bgr; by secreting enzymatic factors, including tissue plasminogen activator. Furthermore, a small molecule modulator of CR3 reduces soluble A&bgr; levels and A&bgr; half-life in brain interstitial fluid (ISF), as measured by in vivo microdialysis. These results suggest that CR3 limits A&bgr; clearance from the ISF, illustrating a novel role for CR3 and microglia in brain A&bgr; metabolism and defining a potential new therapeutic target in AD.

In vivo assessment of behavioral recovery and circulatory exchange in the peritoneal parabiosis model.

The sharing of circulation between two animals using a surgical procedure known as parabiosis has created a wealth of information towards our understanding of physiology, most recently in the neuroscience arena. The systemic milieu is a complex reservoir of tissues, immune cells, and circulating molecules that is surprisingly not well understood in terms of its communication across organ systems. While the model has been used to probe complex physiological questions for many years, critical parameters of recovery and exchange kinetics remain incompletely characterized, limiting the ability to design experiments and interpret results for complex questions. Here we provide evidence that mice joined by parabiosis gradually recover much physiology relevant to the study of brain function. Specifically, we describe the timecourse for a variety of recovery parameters, including those for general health and metabolism, motor coordination, activity, and sleep behavior. Finally, we describe the kinetics of chimerism for several lymphocyte populations as well as the uptake of small molecules into the brains of mice following parabiosis. Our characterization provides an important resource to those attempting to understand the complex interplay between the immune system and the brain as well as other organ systems.