- Jan 7, 2002
- 12,755
- 3
- 0
(Medical Xpress) -- Adult brains generate thousands of new brain cells called neurons each day; however only a small fraction of them survive. The rest die and are consumed by scavenger cells called phagocytes. Until now, scientists have not fully understood how this process works, which phagocytes are unique in the brain, and how the removal of dead neurons influences the production of new neurons.
In humans, neurogenesis, or the formation of new neurons, largely ceases in most areas of the brain during adulthood. However, in two brain areas there is strong evidence that substantial numbers of new neurons are naturally generated (in the hippocampus, which is involved in memory forming, organizing and storing, and the olfactory bulb, involved in the perception of odors).
UVA Health System researchers have made a pivotal discovery in understanding this complicated process, and their findings could one day help scientists devise novel therapies to promote neurogenesis in the adult brain and re-establish its function in patients suffering from depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other mental disorders, in which adult neurogenesis is impaired .
The findings appear in a study published online July 31, 2011 in the journal Nature Cell Biology and led by two UVA researchers -- Jonathan Kipnis, PhD, associate professor of neuroscience, and Kodi S. Ravichandran, PhD, chair of the UVA Department of Microbiology and director of the UVA Center for Cell Clearance. Zhenjie Lu, PhD, is the first author on this work and was instrumental in combining the methodologies in the Kipnis lab (which focuses on basic mechanisms underlying neurological disorders) and the Ravichandran lab (which focuses on cell clearance) to address adult neurogenesis through a combination of in vivo studies in normal and genetically altered mice, and ex vivo studies using neuronal cultures.
In humans, neurogenesis, or the formation of new neurons, largely ceases in most areas of the brain during adulthood. However, in two brain areas there is strong evidence that substantial numbers of new neurons are naturally generated (in the hippocampus, which is involved in memory forming, organizing and storing, and the olfactory bulb, involved in the perception of odors).
UVA Health System researchers have made a pivotal discovery in understanding this complicated process, and their findings could one day help scientists devise novel therapies to promote neurogenesis in the adult brain and re-establish its function in patients suffering from depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other mental disorders, in which adult neurogenesis is impaired .
The findings appear in a study published online July 31, 2011 in the journal Nature Cell Biology and led by two UVA researchers -- Jonathan Kipnis, PhD, associate professor of neuroscience, and Kodi S. Ravichandran, PhD, chair of the UVA Department of Microbiology and director of the UVA Center for Cell Clearance. Zhenjie Lu, PhD, is the first author on this work and was instrumental in combining the methodologies in the Kipnis lab (which focuses on basic mechanisms underlying neurological disorders) and the Ravichandran lab (which focuses on cell clearance) to address adult neurogenesis through a combination of in vivo studies in normal and genetically altered mice, and ex vivo studies using neuronal cultures.
Facebook
Twitter