Brain’s protective barrier gets leakier with age
Accelerated deterioration of blood-brain wall may play a role in memory loss
Time can wear down the sturdiest walls, even the one that protects the brain from bad stuff in the blood. This blood-brain barrier breaks down with age, possibly playing an important role in Alzheimer’s disease, a new study suggests.
Images published in the Jan. 21 Neuron show direct evidence that aging influences the breakdown of the blood-brain barrier and that accelerated deterioration could contribute to learning and memory problems later in life.
Researchers in California detected the deterioration in high-resolution MRI scans of the brains of living humans. Younger brains weren’t as leaky as older brains, specifically in regions critical for learning and memory, the images showed. They also revealed that older people with slight memory and learning difficulties had significantly more blood-brain barrier deterioration than healthy people of similar ages.