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Age-dependent decline in neurogenesis of the hippocampus and extracellular nucleotides

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Abstract

New neurons are continuously generated in the adult brain. This generation primarily occurs in the subventricular zone (SVZ) of the lateral ventricles and the subgranular zone (SGZ) of the hippocampal dentate gyrus. In the SGZ, neural stem cells (NSCs) give rise to glutamatergic granule cells that integrate into the hippocampal circuitry. Reduction of neurogenesis in the hippocampus impairs learning and memory, which suggests that this process is important for adult hippocampal function. Indeed, the neurogenesis is reduced in the progression of aging, which is thought to contribute to age-related cognitive impairment. Although the mechanism of age-dependent decline in neurogenesis remains largely obscure, astrocytes are thought to play a vital role in regulating NSC proliferation and differentiation. Both astrocytes and NSCs secrete nucleotides to the extracellular space and extracellular nucleotides bind to their receptors on the surface of target cells. In this review, the recent knowledge on adult neurogenesis in the hippocampus is summarized briefly, and possible role of extracellular nucleotides in the age-dependent changes of the adult neurogenesis is discussed.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) (JSPS KAKENHI number 23500392) and Grant-in-Aid for Exploratory Research (JSPS KAKENHI number 18K18454) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

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  1. Department of Nanobio Drug Discovery, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Science, Kyoto University, 46-29, Shimo-adachi-cho, Yoshida, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8501, Japan

    Yoshinori Takei

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Takei, Y. Age-dependent decline in neurogenesis of the hippocampus and extracellular nucleotides. Human Cell 32, 88–94 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13577-019-00241-9

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