Adult Neural Stem Cells and Neurogenesis Are Resilient to Intermittent Fasting

Overview

Journal EMBO Rep

Specialty Molecular Biology

Date 2023 Nov 21

PMID 37987220

Authors

Rut Gabarro-Solanas

Amarbayasgalan Davaatseren

Justus Kleifeld

Tatjana Kepcija

Thomas Kocher

Albert Giralt

Ivan Crespo-Enriquez

Noelia Urban

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Intermittent fasting (IF) is a promising strategy to counteract ageing shown to increase the number of adult-born neurons in the dentate gyrus of mice. However, it is unclear which steps of the adult neurogenesis process are regulated by IF. The number of adult neural stem cells (NSCs) decreases with age in an activation-dependent manner and, to counteract this loss, adult NSCs are found in a quiescent state which ensures their long-term maintenance. We aimed to determine if and how IF affects adult NSCs in the hippocampus. To identify the effects of every-other-day IF on NSCs and all following steps in the neurogenic lineage, we combined fasting with lineage tracing and label retention assays. We show here that IF does not affect NSC activation or maintenance and, that contrary to previous reports, IF does not increase neurogenesis. The same results are obtained regardless of strain, sex, diet length, tamoxifen administration or new-born neuron identification method. Our data suggest that NSCs maintain homeostasis upon IF and that this intervention is not a reliable strategy to increase adult neurogenesis.

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