This is because the brain erases damaged cells (autophagy) and keeps neural stem cells ready to replace them.
These researchers at the University of Michigan discovered that a particular protein, FIP200, drives this cleaning process in neural stem cells in mice.
Without FIP200, without this update, vital stem cells could be damaged by their own wastes and could no longer turn into nerve cells.
Scientists have sought to understand how this self-cleaning, autophagy, on neural stem cells works.
The results appear to shed light on why the aging brain and nervous system are more susceptible to disease and irreversible damage. Indeed, the self-cleaning process being slowed down, it no longer allows the replacement of damaged or diseased cells. Researchers could use this study to prevent and treat neurological disorders.
Without the FIP200 gene, neural stem cells disappear:
Professor Jun-Lin Guan, professor of molecular and genetic medicine at UM and lead author of the study explains that “through autophagy, neural stem cells can regulate the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) or free radicals that can accumulate in certain areas of the brain and whose abnormally high levels can trigger their differentiation.not”. Researchers show that by removing the FIP200 gene, neural stem cells die and ROS levels rise. They will then study the effects of neural stem cell autophagy dysfunction to better understand the process in neurological diseases.
