Human adult hippocampal neurogenesis during physiological and pathological aging
The hippocampus, a brain region crucial for learning and memory hosts one of the most unique phenomena of the adult mammalian brain, namely the addition of new neurons throughout lifetime. Memory impairment in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) can be attributed to a significant decline in the functioning of the hippocampal formation. Studies in mice suggest that the disease could also target the generation of new neurons – or adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AHN). In this talk, I will revisit the occurrence of continued neurogenesis in the human hippocampus of aged healthy subjects and patients with neurodegenerative diseases, using brain material obtained under tightly controlled conditions and applying state-of-the-art tissue processing methods. Our data evidence that AHN is a robust phenomenon in the human brain, and points to impaired neurogenesis as a potentially relevant mechanism underlying AD that may be amenable to novel therapeutic strategies.
Date: 11 December 2019, 12:00 (Wednesday, 9th week, Michaelmas 2019)
Venue: Sherrington Library, off Parks Road OX1 3PT
Speaker: Professor Maria Llorens-Martín (Department of Molecular Neuropathology, Centro de Biología Molecular “Severo Ochoa” Madrid)
Organising department: Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics (DPAG)
Organiser: Prof Francis Szele (DPAG, University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address: francis.szele@dpag.ox.ac.uk
Host: Prof Francis Szele (DPAG, University of Oxford)
Part of: Neuroscience Theme Guest Speakers (DPAG)
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Talitha Smith