Topic: brain parenchyma

The brain parenchyma undergoes several structural changes throughout life that significantly impact on its physiology, and are reflected in changes in cognitive abilities. The aim of this healthy ageing study was to investigate how age-related microstructural alterations affect the degree of preserved cognition in the elderly. We sought to identify brain region- and age-specific patterns that contribute to the physiological decline in cognition. To this end, we compared behavioral and microstructural MRI biomarkers in adult (6 months) and old (1.5 years) Wistar rats. Additionally, we analyzed

Microglia cover the whole brain parenchyma, where each microglia cell occupies a fixed position and, through its projections, surveils its own territory (Kierdorf and Prinz, 2017). Genetic (Bruttger et al., 2015) or pharmacologic (Elmore et al., 2014) partial ablation of adult microglia is followed by a recovery of their number and coverage of the brain parenchyma, supporting a fundamental role of microglial spatial organization in local surveillance (Nimmerjahn et al., 2005). Neurological disorders, particularly Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), associate with dysfunctional microglia, which cluster a