Such changes include the presence of neurofibrillary tangles within the entorhinal cortex,25 synapse loss in the terminal zone of the perforant pathway of the dentate gyrus,26 changes to dendrites, disruption of longterm potentiation,27 and decreases in the expression of the iV-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor in the molecular layer of the dentate gyrus.24 Age-related alterations in brain metabolism and perfusion Functional imaging tools, such as positron emission tomography (PET), single-photon emission tomography (SPECT), 133Xe- or xenon-enhanced computed tomography (CT), and

optical imaging have permitted in vivo evaluation of brain perfusion and metabolic measurements. Yet, whether generalized physiologic Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical measures such Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical as resting cerebral blood flow (CBF) are altered in normal aging remains a point, of controversy. Using the 133Xe inhalation method, which suffers from particularly poor spatial resolution relative to other methods, several investigators have demonstrated a significant reduction in mean CBF throughout, the adult, life span.28-31 With PET, Leenders et al32 similarly demonstrated a decline of 0.5%/year in CBF, cerebral blood www.selleckchem.com/products/Decitabine.html volume (CBV), and cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen (CMRO2) in cortical brain regions. Several other investigators have also observed aging declines in CMRO2, with

a milder influence of age on CBF and oxygen Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical extraction.33-36 One important potential confound in many of these studies is the diluting influence of age-related cerebral volume loss Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical on these measurements. Due to the limited spatial resolution of many functional imaging techniques, partial volume averaging of cortical signal with enlarged sulcal CSF spaces can result in underestimation of metabolic parameters in older subjects.37 Applying MRI-based partial volume correction to Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical [15O]water PET data, Meltzer et al38 recently demonstrated no reduction in cortical CBF in healthy aging. This work challenges

the interpretation of older studies, which did not account, for this source of artifact that may dilute metabolic measures in the elderly.39 Although resting CBF may be normal in the successfully aged individual, age effects on small arterioles may reduce the autoregulatory capacity of the cerebrovascular system to respond to vasodilatory challenge;40 thus diminishing the brain’s ability to compensate for changes in systemic perfusion Cell press pressure and perhaps enhancing its susceptibility to ischemic damage. PET studies of brain glucose utilization have similarly demonstrated disagreement, among reports as to whether brain function declines with age. In 1982, Kuhl et al41 reported a gradual aging decline in the mean cerebral metabolic rate of glucose utilization (CMRglc). Later studies supported a regional preference for agerelated reductions in brain glucose metabolism in the frontal lobes, which were most marked after age 60.