Impact of very old age on the expression of cervical spinal cord cell markers in rats

FONTANA PA; BARBEITO CG; GOYA RG; GIMENO EJ; PORTIANSKY EL

JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL NEUROANATOMY.

Elsevier

Lugar: Maastricht; Año: 2009 vol. 37 p. 98 - 104

0891-0618

Aging is a process associated with both anatomical changes and loss of expression of some cell markers. Intermediate filaments are known to impart mechanical stability to cells and tissues. Some of them are present in different cell populations of the central nervous system. In order to explore the impact of extreme age we immunohistochemically characterised the changes in intermediate filaments and other cellular markers present in cells populating the gray matter cervical spinal cord of very old rats (28 months) taking young (5 months) counterparts as a reference. An increase in both neurofilament staining area and density was observed in senile rats in comparison to young animals. No differences were observed in the expression of glial fibrilary acidic protein GFAP and S100 during aging. Vimentin expression in the ependymal zone decreased in area and intensity during aging. Our data suggest that although there are some significant changes in the morphological and histochemical patterns of the cervical spinal cord in senile rats, they do not necessarily represent a pathologic situation but may rather reflect plastic reorganization.