May 29th, 2026
Astrocytes make up a sizable fraction of the supporting cells of the brain, and undertake a wide range of tasks in order to maintain function. They supply metabolites needed for neural function, maintain other aspects of brain chemistry, provide structural support, and are a component of the blood-brain barrier, among many other activities. It has been noted that astrocytes tend towards greater inflammatory behavior in the aged brain, and like all cell populations a greater number of astrocytes become senescent in later life. Behaviors change in many other ways in response to the aged environment, some adaptive and some maladaptive. It remains an interesting open question as to what degree aging can be treated by simply forcing cells to behave as though they were young; answers should hopefully emerge from continued work on partial epigenetic reprogramming of living tissue, the imposition of a youthful epigenetic pattern of gene expression on aged cells.
In today's open access paper, researchers discuss two less drastic approaches to favorably changing the behavior of astrocytes in the aging brain. In one case, a small molecule is used to induce a lesser degree of inflammatory overactivation in astrocytes, leading to improved function in brain tissue in an animal study. In the other case, a gene therapy is used to enable astrocytes to manufacture more of a secreted extracellular matrix protein that is important to the creation and function of synaptic connections between neurons; levels of this protein decline with age and in neurodegenerative conditions. Again, this intervention improves function in aged brain tissue, as assessed in an animal study.
