Discovery
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In a study published on October 2, researcher Anne Brunet allows neural stem cells to regain their youth by blocking glucose access in rodents. A promising result for better understanding neurogenesis in humans.
“We knew that physical activity, fasting or calorie restriction rejuvenated the brain, now we have a mechanism.” Pierre-Marie Lledo, the director of the neuroscience department at the Pasteur Institute, is enthusiastic about a study published in the journal Nature Wednesday October 2. Anne Brunet, professor of genetics at Stanford (California), demonstrates an effect of glucose on certain aged mouse brain cells. “It was found that inactivation of a gene coding for a glucose transporter had a robust effect in stimulating the proliferation of neuronal stem cells from aged mice, and allowing the generation of new neurons,” she explains to us. This deserves some explanation.
Regenerating neurons is a goal of neurology research. The phenomenon exists naturally. Neurons are created throughout life in the hippocampus – the place of memory – and in the olfactory bulb, in particular. In her study, the researcher, a French woman who emigrated to the United States, wanted to understand why, in mice, this neurogenesis decreased with age. François Féron, professor of neuroscience at the Faculty of Medicine of Aix-Marseille University, welcomes an article «techni
