Humans produce new brain cells

throughout their lives, say researchers

Findings could help hunt for treatment for degenerative
conditions such as Alzheimers, and psychiatric problems

Humans continue to produce new neurons in a part of their brain

involved in learning, memory and emotion throughout adulthood,
scientists have revealed, countering previous theories that production
stopped after adolescence. The findings could help in developing
treatments for neurological conditions such as dementia.

Many new neurons are produced in the hippocampus in babies, but it

has been a matter of hot debate whether this continues into adulthood
– and if so, whether this rate drops with age as seen in mice and
nonhuman primates.

Although some research had found new neurons in the hippocampus of

older humans, a recent study scotched the idea, claiming that new
neurons in the hippocampus were at undetectable levels by our late
teens.

Now another group of scientists have published research that pushes

back, revealing the new neurons are produced in this brain region in
human adults and does not drop off with age. The findings, they say,
could help in the hunt for ways to treat conditions ranging from
Alzheimer’s to psychiatric problems.

“The exciting part is that the neurons are there throughout a lifetime,”
said Dr Maura Boldrini from Columbia University in New York and
first author of the new study published in the journal Cell Stem Cell. “It
seems that indeed humans are different from mice – where [neuron
production] goes down with age really fast – and this could mean that
we need these neurons for our complex learning abilities and cognitive
behavioural responses to emotions,” she said.

Boldrini and colleagues looked at the hippocampus in 28 men and

women aged between 14 and 79, collected just hours after they had
died. Importantly, Boldrini notes, all of the individuals were healthy
before death, unlike in many previous studies.
Using a number of techniques, the team examined the degree of new
blood vessel formation, the volume, and the number of cells of different
stages of maturity, in an area known as the dentate gyrus – the region
of the hippocampus where new neurons are produced.

“According to mice studies there are these pluripotent stem cells that
are a pool of cells that don’t normally do anything, they are quiescent,
and then they can undergo division,” said Boldrini, adding that some
studies have suggested that we might be born with a finite pool of these
‘mother cells’. “Those daughter cells are the ones that exponentially
divide and make many more cells and differentiate towards becoming a
neuron.”

The team found levels of these “mother cells” dropped with age in the
front and middle region of the dentate gyrus. However, levels of the
cells they give rise to did not drop, with the team finding thousands of
new, immature neurons in the dentate gyrus at the time of death
regardless of age.

“We can still make enough neurons even with fewer left of these
‘mothers’.” said Boldrini.

However, there was a drop in the front of the dentate gyrus in the
number of cells producing substances linked to neuroplasticity – the
ability for the brain to change or “rewire”.

“Even though we make these new neurons, they might be less plastic,
or maybe making fewer connections or migrating less,” said Boldrini.

The authors note that a drop in plasticity might help explain why even
healthy people can become more emotionally vulnerable as they age,
but that the formation of new cells including neurons might help
protect against cognitive or emotional decline.

Boldrini said it was now important to look at what happens in the

brains of those with Alzheimer’s and emotional problems, since if there
are differences in the formation of new cells in the hippocampus it
could offer scientists new targets for treatment.

Dr Mercedes Paredes from the University of California San Francisco,

an author of last month’s paper suggesting adults do not develop new
neurons, said she was not persuaded. “For now, we do not think this
new study challenges what we have concluded from our own recently
published observations: if neurogenesis continues in the adult human
hippocampus, it is an extremely rare phenomenon,” she said. “It boils
down to interpretation of equivocal cells which we took extra steps to
characterise extensively and showed not to be new neurons as they first
appeared.”

But Dr Niels Haan from Cardiff University said he was convinced new
neurons form in the adult human brain, although their function was as
yet unclear.

“We know from work in animal models that adult born neurons are
required for various learning and memory processes, and there is some
evidence suggesting neurogenesis is disrupted in human psychiatric
conditions,” he said. “This is a promising area for potential
treatments.”