Immune cells flood into the aging brain, Stanford scientists discover
Scientists have discovered that the aging human brain may be far less isolated from the rest of the body than once believed. Stanford researchers found that large numbers of immune cells from the blood begin entering the brain as early as middle age, where they can transform into microglia, the brain’s specialized immune cells. The finding overturns a long-standing assumption that these cells…
Immune cells from elsewhere in the body enter the aging human brain, according to new research by Stanford scientists. This discovery, published in the journal Nature, challenges the long-held belief that the brain's immune system is separate from the rest of the body's immune defenses. The researchers found that as people age, large numbers of immune cells from the blood enter the brain, potentially reshaping our understanding of brain aging and leading to new treatments for neurological diseases.
The study, supported by the Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience, was led by postdoctoral scholar Julia Belk and senior author Siddhartha Jaiswal, a Stanford Medicine associate professor of pathology. Their findings suggest that immune cells known as microglia, which renew themselves throughout life, might not be self-sustaining.
This could have implications for treating Alzheimer's disease, as previous research showed people with certain blood stem cell mutations were less likely to develop the condition.
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