Age-related changes in metabolic profiles of rat hippocampus and cortices.
The time course of metabolic changes was investigated in the hippocampus and the parietal, rhinal and frontal cortices of rats from 4 to 30 months old. Samples were analysed by the solid-state high-resolution magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance method. Quantification was performed with the quest procedure of jMRUI software. Eighteen metabolites were identified and separated in the spectrum. Six of them were not age sensitive, in particular alanine, glutamine and lactate. In contrast, choline, glycerophosphocholine, myo-inositol, N-acetylaspartate, scyllo-inositol (s-Ins) and taurine (Tau) were notably altered over aging. Interestingly, each age group showed a specific metabolic profile. The concentration of metabolites such as Tau was altered in middle-aged rats only, whereas the s-Ins level decreased in old rats only. Most metabolites showed progressive alteration during the process of aging, which was initiated during the middle-aged period (18 months). Taken together, these results suggest that cell membrane integrity is perturbed with age. Each brain region investigated had distinctive qualitative and/or quantitative metabolic age-related features. These age-related changes would affect network connectivities and then cognitive functions.
Paban
Véronique
V
Université d'Aix-Marseille I, Laboratoire de Neurobiologie Intégrative et Adaptative, UMR/CNRS 6149, 3 Place Victor Hugo, 13331 Marseille Cedex 03, France. veronique.paban@univ-provence.fr
Fauvelle
Florence
F
Alescio-Lautier
Béatrice
B
D000375:Aging; D000818:Animals; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000378:metabolism*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000378:metabolism*; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D055442:Metabolome / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric