Valiant neurons and inexorable aging.
Despite an enormous number of variables, both genetic and epigenetic, most neuronal systems eventually show age-related changes. Although no simple description is possible because of the age, species, locus and state specificities of these alterations, the robust metabolic-synthetic load carried by most neurons is eventually reflected in the regressive changes shown by increasing numbers of them. Nonetheless, their remarkable capacity for selective dendritic and spine growth into the period of advanced old age underlines the biological resiliency built into these post-mitotic elements.
Department of Anatomy, UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90024.
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Scheibel
D000375:Aging / Q000473:pathology*; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D009474:Neurons / Q000473:pathology*