Opposite patterns of age-associated changes in neurons and glial cells of the thalamus of human brain

Abstract

In an autopsy series of 19 individuals, age-ranged 24-94, a relatively age-spared region, the anterior-ventral thalamus, was analyzed by immunohistochemical techniques to visualize neurons (neurofilament protein), astrocytes (glial fibrillary acidic protein), microglial cells (CD68) and amyloid precursor protein. The pattern of immunoreactivity was determined by surface fractal dimension and lacunarity, the size by the field area (FA) and the spatial uniformity by the uniformity index. From the normalized FA values of immunoreactivity for the four markers studied, a global parameter was defined to give an overall characterization of the age-dependent changes in the glio-neuronal networks. A significant exponential decline of the GP was observed with increasing age. This finding suggests that early in life (age<50 years) an adaptive response might be triggered, involving the glio-neuronal networks in plastic adaptive adjustments to cope with the environmental challenges and the continuous wearing off of the neuronal structures. The slow decay of the GP observed in a later phase (age>70 years) could be due to the non-trophic reserve still available.