Db. Pettigrew et al., Sympathetic neurite growth on central nervous system sections is region-specific and unaltered by aging, NEUROBIOL A, 21(5), 2000, pp. 629-638
Several lines of evidence suggest that the brain exhibits reduced plasticit
y with aging. However, a variety of soluble neurite outgrowth-promoting fac
tors, such as neurotrophins, are not decreased in the aged brain, and aged
neurons do not possess dramatically reduced growth potential. The possibili
ty that aging results in reduced baseline substrate-bound neurite outgrowth
-promoting activity in the central nervous system (CNS) was evaluated using
tissue section culture. There were clear differences between brain regions
in the extent of neurite outgrowth on both young and aged brain sections.
However, no differences in the extent of neurite outgrowth were observed as
a function of age. These results suggest that aging of the rat CNS is not
accompanied by major alterations in the baseline neurite outgrowth-promotin
g substrate properties of the tissue. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All ri
ghts reserved.