Abstract
Aging affects almost all the aspects of brain functions, but the mechanisms remain largely undefined. Increasing number of literatures have manifested the important role of glial cells in regulating the aging process. Oligodendroglial lineage cell is a major type of glia in central nervous system (CNS), composed of mature oligodendrocytes (OLs), and oligodendroglia precursor cells (OPCs). OLs produce myelin sheaths that insulate axons and provide metabolic support to meet the energy demand. OPCs maintain the population throughout lifetime with the abilities to proliferate and differentiate into OLs. Increasing evidence has shown that oligodendroglial cells display active dynamics in adult and aging CNS, which is extensively involved in age-related brain function decline in the elderly. In this review, we summarized present knowledge about dynamic changes of oligodendroglial lineage cells during normal aging and discussed their potential roles in age-related functional decline. Especially, focused on declined myelinogenesis during aging and underlying mechanisms. Clarifying those oligodendroglial changes and their effects on neurofunctional decline may provide new insights in understanding aging associated brain function declines.
Highlights
Brain is sensitive to age with increasing neurofunction deficits including cognitive decline, motor and sensory abnormalities during aging (Sousounis et al, 2014; Damoiseaux, 2017; Jeromin and Bowser, 2017)
This review aims to summarize recent evidence of dynamic changes of oligodendroglia lineage cells during aging and potential mechanisms of aging-related myelinogenesis decline
Why the myelinogenesis ability dropped during aging? Here we summarized possible intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms
Summary
Brain is sensitive to age with increasing neurofunction deficits including cognitive decline, motor and sensory abnormalities during aging (Sousounis et al, 2014; Damoiseaux, 2017; Jeromin and Bowser, 2017). White matter abnormalities were identified and increased with age starting from middle age in humans (Kohama et al, 2012). White matter is mainly composed of bundled myelinated (87%) and unmyelinated axons and glia cells (Wang et al, 2008; Kohama et al, 2012). It was reported that OLs occupy about 75% of all glial cells in the neocortex of human brain (von Bartheld et al, 2016). Oligodendroglia lineage cells are undergoing dynamic changes during aging and that have been extensively reported recently (Stadelmann et al, 2019; Chapman and Hill, 2020; Sams, 2021)
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