WIKIMEDIA, RAMAInflammation in the hypothalamus may underlie aging of the entire body, according to a study published today (May 1) in Nature. Over-activation of the inflammatory protein nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) in the brain region leads to a number of aging-related changes in mice, from cognitive decline to muscle weakness. Unexpectedly, this process promotes aging at least in part by suppressing gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), which stimulates adult neurogenesis.
“I think it’s pretty exciting,” said Brian Kennedy, CEO of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in California, who was not involved in the study. “It’s one of the first studies to modulate inflammatory pathways [to] show effects on longevity.”
“The hypothalamus has been one of our focuses for many years,” said Dongsheng Cai, one of the paper’s authors and medical scientist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. “It is tiny, but it is a very crucial structure in the brain in terms of regulation of life-supporting activities,” such as metabolism, reproduction, and growth.
NF-κB is transcription factor that, among other functions, turns on genes involved in inflammation and immune response, and can be activated in the presence of pro-inflammatory cytokines. The researchers ...
