Age-dependent Cognitive Impairment and Inducible Expansion of Neural Stem Cells

衰老与神经干细胞（NSC）增殖潜能的大幅下降相关，并且已经提出，由此导致的神经发生的下降可能是海马功能缺陷的主要原因，如学习和记忆，其表征衰老个体。我们的研究小组发现，在成年小鼠海马中，通过急性过表达特定的细胞周期调节因子可以诱导NSC的扩增。因此，我们的团队将研究促进衰老小鼠NSC扩张的可能性，以弥补与衰老相关的海马功能缺陷。如果成功，我们的项目将提供第一个原则证明，即哺乳动物大脑的再生疗法可以通过内源性体干细胞的急性操作来实现。这种操纵可能会弥补衰老带来的负面影响，这一发现可能会对我们的社会产生巨大影响。

Aging correlates with a substantial decrease in the proliferative potential of neural stem cells (NSC) and it has been proposed that the resulting decline in neurogenesis may be a primary cause for the deficits in hippocampal function, such as learning and memory, that characterize senescent individuals. Our group has found that expansion of NSC can be induced in the adult mouse hippocampus by an acute overexpression of specific cell cycle regulators. Thus, our team will investigate the possibility to promote the expansion of NSC in senescent mice in order to compensate for the deficits in hippocampal function that are associated with aging. If successful, our project will provide the first proof-of-principle that regenerative therapies of the mammalian brain may be achieved by an acute manipulation of endogenous somatic stem cells. The finding that such manipulation may compensate for the negative effects induced by aging may have an enormous impact for our society.