Molecular biological analyses of age-related olfactory dysfunction

我们使用多种小鼠模型和免疫组织化学方法研究了嗅觉粘膜衰老相关进展的病理生理学。对mechimazle诱导的神经上皮变性的分析表明，尽管小鼠嗅神经上皮在16个月大的小鼠中仍保留了重建神经上皮和支配嗅球的能力，但与年轻小鼠相比，16个月大的小鼠最终解剖恢复的不完全。重建神经上皮的细胞动力学分析表明，这种与年龄相关的重建神经上皮能力的下降与神经上皮损伤后其与年龄相关的增殖活性下降有关，而不是神经元分化过程的变化。我们还制备了去卵巢小鼠和雌激素受体β敲除出血小鼠，以研究雌激素在嗅粘膜稳态中的作用。

We investigated the pathophysiology underlying age-related progression in degeneration of the olfactory mucosa using various mouse models and immunohistochemical methods. The analyses of mechimazole-induced neuroepithelial degeneration revealed that although mouse olfactory neuroepithelium retained the capacity to reconstitute neuroepithelium as well as innervate the olfactory bulb even in 16-month-old mice, the final anatomical recovery was less complete in 16-month-old mice compared with the younger mice. Cell kinetics analyses of the reconstituting neuroepithelium suggested that such a age-related decline in the capacity to reconstitute neuroepithelium is associated with its age-related decrease in proliferative activity after the neuroepithelial injury rather than changes in the process of neuronal differentiation.We also prepared ovariectomized mice and bled estrogen receptor beta-knockout mice to examine the involvement of estrogen in the homeostasis of olfactory mucosa.