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Review
. 2020 Jun 18:40:10.
doi: 10.1186/s41232-020-00122-x. eCollection 2020.

Current understanding of adult neurogenesis in the mammalian brain: how does adult neurogenesis decrease with age?

Yoshitaka Kase  1   2 , Takuya Shimazaki  1 , Hideyuki Okano  1
Affiliations
Review

Current understanding of adult neurogenesis in the mammalian brain: how does adult neurogenesis decrease with age?

Yoshitaka Kase et al. Inflamm Regen. .

Abstract

Adult neurogenesis occurs throughout life in restricted brain regions in mammals. However, the number of neural stem cells (NSCs) that generate new neurons steadily decreases with age, resulting in a decrease in neurogenesis. Transplantation of mesenchymal cells or cultured NSCs has been studied as a promising treatment in models of several brain injuries including cerebral infarction and cerebral contusion. Considering the problems of host-versus-graft reactions and the tumorigenicity of transplanted cells, the mobilization of endogenous adult NSCs should be more feasible for the treatment of these brain injuries. However, the number of adult NSCs in the adult brain is limited, and their mitotic potential is low. Here, we outline what we know to date about why the number of NSCs and adult neurogenesis decrease with age. We also discuss issues applicable to regenerative medicine.

Keywords: Adult neurogenesis; Aging; Neural stem cell; Subgranular zone; Transit amplifying progenitor cell; Ventricular-subventricular zone.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interestsThe authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Various factors related to the decrease in adult neurogenesis with aging. Representative factors that decrease adult neurogenesis with age in the SGZ (a) and V-SVZ (b)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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