Age-associated alterations in hippocampal and basal forebrain nuclear factor kappa B activity

✍ Scribed by Tracy Toliver-Kinsky; John Papaconstantinou; J. Regino Perez-Polo

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 216 KB
• Volume: 48
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0360-4012
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-4547(19970615)48:6<580::aid-jnr11>3.0.co;2-z

✦ Synopsis

Age-related cognitive deficits are often associated with loss of cholinergic activity within the neurotrophindependent cholinergic neurons that project from the basal forebrain to the hippocampus. The cause of reduced cholinergic function is unknown, but alterations in transcription factor-signaling pathways causing altered gene expression may cause decreased specific tissue function, resulting in loss of cholinergic activity. We measured transcription factor Nuclear Factor kappa B by electrophoretic mobility shift assay and Western analysis in young and aged rat brain tissues and report that basal levels of Nuclear Factor kappa B DNA-binding activity increase in the hippocampus and basal forebrain with age to significantly higher levels at 30 months of age. This age-associated increase in binding activity is associated with increased translocation of p65 to the nucleus. These data show an age-associated alteration in Nuclear Factor kappa B signal transduction pathways that may contribute to age-associated decreases in specific tissue function.