According to a new study released on Wednesday, physical activity has a substantial impact on brain health and can both prevent and delay the cognitive decline that comes with aging in addition to rejuvenating the brain.
A group from Australia’s University of Queensland concentrated on the way that individual mouse brain cells expressed different genes.
The immune cells of the central nervous system that sustain brain function, called microglia, exhibit significant changes in gene expression in response to exercise, according to research published in the journal Aging Cell.
Significantly, the researchers discovered that exercise causes aging microglia’s gene expression patterns to change back to those of young mice.
“We were both surprised and excited about the extent to which physical activity rejuvenates and transforms the composition of immune cells within the brain, in particular the way in which it was able to reverse the negative impacts of ageing,” Jana Vukovic, a researcher at the University of Queensland,
The study, according to Vukovic, emphasizes the significance of “tailored exercise programmes”.
“Our findings should help different industries to design interventions for elderly individuals who are looking to maintain or improve both their physical and mental capabilities,” she stated.
Additionally, the research demonstrated that wheel running “prevented and/or reduced the presence of T cells in the hippocampus” in aged mice.
Immune cells called T-cells are known to proliferate with age. They discovered that the hippocampus, a part of the brain important in memory, learning, and emotion, needs microglia cells to function as a stimulant to help generate new neurons. Designing interventions to preserve or enhance older individuals’ physical and mental health can be aided by the study.