Healthy blood vessels matter for more than just heart health. Vascular well-being is critical for brain health and potentially in addressing age-related cognitive decline and neurodegenerative disorders, like Alzheimer’s disease, according to new study led by Penn State researchers. The findings point to an understudied but possible key role the brain’s vascular network — or energy infrastructure — plays in the onset of neurodegenerative disease.
They published their work today (July 30) in Nature Communications.
Using advanced imaging techniques, the team developed maps of a mouse brain that illustrate how vascular cells and structures like blood vessels change with age and identified areas that are vulnerable to deterioration. When blood vessels degrade, nerve cells in the brain, called neurons, are starved of energy, causing them to malfunction or die. It can lead to a condition called vascular dementia, the second leading cause of cognitive impairment in older adults, and symptoms like sleep disturbance.
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Subscribe for FREE“With something like Alzheimer’s disease, by the time you can see vascular changes and significant brain shrinkage on a MRI, cell death has already occurred. We need to understand how these cells and structures change before a major catastrophe happens,” said Yongsoo Kim, associate professor of neural and behavioral sciences at Penn State College of Medicine and senior author of the study. “This study provides early signs of neurodegenerative disorders, potentially leading to earlier diagnosis, and clues for how we can slow down the aging process and cognitive changes.”
“This study provides early signs of neurodegenerative disorders, potentially leading to earlier diagnosis, and clues for how we can slow down the aging process and cognitive changes.”
Yongsoo Kim, associate professor of neural and behavioral sciences at Penn State College of Medicine