Chronic Treatment with Melatonin Improves Hippocampal Neurogenesis in the Aged Brain and Under Neurodegeneration

Overview

Journal Molecules

Publisher MDPI

Specialty Biology

Date 2022 Sep 9

PMID 36080336

Authors

Cristina Cachan-Vega

Ignacio Vega-Naredo

Yaiza Potes

Juan Carlos Bermejo-Millo

Adrian Rubio-Gonzalez

Claudia Garcia-Gonzalez

Eduardo Antuna

Manuel Bermudez

Jose Gutierrez-Rodriguez

Jose Antonio Boga

Ana Coto-Montes

Beatriz Caballero

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Adult hippocampal neurogenesis is altered during aging and under different neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases. Melatonin shows neurogenic and neuroprotective properties during aging and neuropathological conditions. In this study, we evaluated the effects of chronic treatment with melatonin on different markers of neurodegeneration and hippocampal neurogenesis using immunohistochemistry in the aged and neurodegenerative brains of SAMP8 mice, which is an animal model of accelerated senescence that mimics aging-related Alzheimer's pathology. Neurodegenerative processes observed in the brains of aged SAMP8 mice at 10 months of age include the presence of damaged neurons, disorganization in the layers of the brain cortex, alterations in neural processes and the length of neuronal prolongations and β-amyloid accumulation in the cortex and hippocampus. This neurodegeneration may be associated with neurogenic responses in the hippocampal dentate gyrus of these mice, since we observed a neurogenic niche of neural stem and progenitor/precursors cells in the hippocampus of SAMP8 mice. However, hippocampal neurogenesis seems to be compromised due to alterations in the cell survival, migration and/or neuronal maturation of neural precursor cells due to the neurodegeneration levels in these mice. Chronic treatment with melatonin for 9 months decreased these neurodegenerative processes and the neurodegeneration-induced neurogenic response. Noticeably, melatonin also induced recovery in the functionality of adult hippocampal neurogenesis in aged SAMP8 mice.

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