Brain immunity may undergo a major midlife overhaul linked to neuroinflammation

Brain immunity may undergo a major midlife overhaul linked to neuroinflammation

A new study indicates that the immune cell landscape of the hippocampus, a brain region critical for learning and memory, rapidly undergoes substantial remodeling beginning in midlife. This previously unrecognized shift suggests a potential mechanism by which aging may contribute to chronic neuroinflammation commonly observed in neurodegenerative disease.

Midlife Brain Aging Linked to Immune Cell Remodeling, Blood-Brain Barrier Decline

New data from a National Institutes of Health-funded study shows that midlife, the immune cell landscape of the hippocampus, undergoes substantial remodeling. It points to a potential mechanism by which aging may contribute to the chronic neuroinflammation commonly seen in neurodegenerative disease. Details are published in a new Science paper titled “Epigenetic and 3D genome reprogramming during the aging of human hippocampus.” The work was don…