Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have identified a role for the youth-associated protein TIMP2 in supporting the healthy function of microglia, the brain’s resident immune cells.
In a study published Aug. 12 in Nature Communications, they found that loss of TIMP2 caused microglia to develop several features associated with aging and neurodegeneration. Conversely, restoring TIMP2 in the blood of aged mice improved the ability of microglia to clear debris and reduced molecular markers associated with inflammation and other maladaptive states.
The findings provide new insight into how youth-associated factors may influence the aging brain and suggest that TIMP2 may help maintain healthy immune function in the brain as organisms age.
Why do two individuals faced with the same information sometimes make completely different decisions? It is a question made famous by Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman, whose book “Thinking, Fast and Slow” explored the contrast between rapid, intuitive decisions and slower, more deliberative thinking in humans.