ABOVE: The human dentate gyrus of a 68-year-old healthy individual. The protein DCX is labeled in red to highlight immature neurons while mature neurons are in blue, labeled with DAPI. © LLORENS LAB
New neurons develop in the brains of healthy adult humans, but neurogenesis is severely diminished in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients no matter their age, researchers report today (March 26) in Nature Medicine.
“This is the first really strong evidence showing that neurogenesis is reduced in human Alzheimer’s disease patients,” Xinyu Zhao, a neurobiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was not involved in the study, tells The Scientist. Perhaps, the authors suggest, finding a way to promote neurogenesis in these patients could help in treating Alzheimer’s disease.
The paper is the latest to tackle the question of whether neurogenesis actually occurs in adult human brains. A year ago, researchers reported that they couldn’t find signs ...
