The hippocampus in the brain is vital to cognitive functions involving learning and memory. In today’s open access paper, researchers review the evidence for the hippocampus to be particularly vulnerable to damaging mechanisms, including those involved in aging. It is tentatively suggested that physiological and biochemical differences in the hippocampus point to a greater fragility of the hippocampal blood-brain barrier as a common thread underlying pathological changes observed in aging and Alzheimer’s disease. The blood-brain barrier is a specialized layer of cells that wrap blood vessels passing through the central nervous system. Its purpose is to restrict traffic of molecules and cells between the bloodstream and the brain, to…
Is the Aging Hippocampus Particularly Vulnerable to Blood-Brain Barrier Dysfunction?
The hippocampus in the brain is vital to cognitive functions involving learning and memory. In today’s open access paper, researchers review the evidence for the hippocampus to be particularly vulnerable to damaging mechanisms, including those involved in aging. It is tentatively suggested that physiological and biochemical differences in the hippocampus point to a greater fragility of the hippocampal blood-brain barrier as a common thread underlying pathological changes observed in aging and Alzheimer’s disease. The blood-brain barrier is a specialized layer of cells that wrap blood vessels passing through the central nervous system. Its purpose is to restrict traffic of molecules and cells between the bloodstream and the brain, to…