Aging Nerves (IMAGE)

Society for Neuroscience

Aging Nerves

Caption

Immune cells may contribute to weakness and mobility issues in the elderly by driving nerve degeneration. Nerve fibers of normal adult animals (e.g., 12 months of age) consist of an axon (brown), and a Schwann cell (blue) forming a myelin sheath (black ring) around the axon. Few harmless, non-activated macrophages (red) neighbor the fibers. During aging (blue arrows), myelin rings slightly change their shape, concommitant with an activation of macrophages. These macrophages remove the myelin sheathes, resulting in no or thin myelin and disturbed nerve function. When macrophages are deleted (green arrow), the aging myelin sheath is rescued and function preserved. Pink profiles represent cell nuclei.

Credit

Rudolf Martini

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