Key points from article :
Infusing old mice with cerebrospinal fluid obtained from young mice improves their memory by increasing proliferation and differentiation of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs).
Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) helps nourish and maintain our brain cells, but its composition changes with age.
Researchers infused 20-month-old mice with CSF drawn from young mice.
Three weeks later, they analyzed the mice’s memory and found the infused mice performed significantly better than the controls.
Oligodendrogenesis is drastically reduced with age and that increasing it can improve learning and memory in aged mice.
CSF treatment significantly improves cytoskeleton building in OPCs.
More research will be required to determine how effective this approach is, as only one type of memory test was used in this study.
The study was published in Nature.
