Aging & Brain Plasticity: some good news

From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Sat Oct 20 2001 - 11:17:18 MDT


For some strange reason I started reading the 2001
Proceedings of the National Acadmey of Sciences
this morning starting with the January issue...
(Its *so* nice that these are online and available
for public access...)

At any rate some tidbits...

"Reprogramming of telomerase activity and rebuilding of
telomere length in cloned cattle"
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/98/3/1077

Turns out that telemere length *is* restored to the
"normal" length in the blastocyst stage of development.
If this occurs in humans as well it bodes well for
organs cloned through these methods.

"A cross-link breaker has sustained effects on arterial and
ventricular properties in older rhesus monkeys"
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/98/3/1171

This is one of the publications by Cerami's group on Alt-711.
The reversal of age-related stiffening of the vascular and
myocardial stiffness by Alt-711 can be viewed as a legitimate
anti-aging therapy.

"N-cadherin is regulated by gonadal steroids in the adult hippocampus"
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/98/3/1312

Turns out that 17B-estradiol and testosterone mediate the
expression of N-cadherin which shows up in hippocampal synapses.
May help to explain why the brain becomes less plastic as
adolescence approaches. To replasticize our brain we will
need inhibitors for the receptors for these molecules
in those brain regions.

Its nice to see good news for a change.
Robert



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