Verret Laure, Trouche Stéphanie, Zerwas Meike, Rampon Claire
CNRS UMR 5169, Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale, Université Paul Sabatier, 118 route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse Cedex 4, France.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2007 Aug;32 Suppl 1:S26-30. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2007.04.014. Epub 2007 Jul 12.
It is now widely accepted that new neurons continue to be added to the brain throughout life including during normal aging. The finding of adult neurogenesis in the hippocampus, a structure involved in the processing of memories, has favored the idea that newborn neurons might subserve cognitive functions. Recent work on human post-mortem tissues and mice models of Alzheimer's disease (AD) has reported persistent hippocampal proliferative capacity during pathological aging. Although it is not yet clear whether neurogenesis leads to the production of fully functional mature neurons in AD brains, these findings open prospects for cell-replacement therapies. Strategies aimed at promoting neurogenesis may also contribute to improve cognitive deficits caused by normal or pathological aging.
现在人们普遍认为，包括在正常衰老过程中，一生中大脑都会不断有新的神经元生成。在海马体（一个参与记忆处理的结构）中发现成年神经发生，支持了新生神经元可能有助于认知功能的观点。最近关于人类尸检组织和阿尔茨海默病（AD）小鼠模型的研究报告称，在病理性衰老过程中，海马体具有持续的增殖能力。虽然目前尚不清楚神经发生是否会导致AD大脑中产生功能完全成熟的神经元，但这些发现为细胞替代疗法开辟了前景。旨在促进神经发生的策略也可能有助于改善由正常或病理性衰老引起的认知缺陷。
