Mechanisms of astrocyte aging in reactivity and disease
Aging alters brain functions but how astrocytes are impacted by aging, nor how they contribute to neuronal dysfunction is not well understood.
The authors discuss aging-related changes in astrocyte cellular functions. A decline in proteostasis and chaperone function may lead to organelle stress. Lipid droplets, which derive from the endoplasmic reticulum, accumulate in age, associated with downregulation of lipid metabolism transcripts and upregulation of lipid transport transcripts.
Accompanied with aging-related decline in mitochondrial function and failure of autophagy, this may lead to accumulation of potentially toxic lipid species.
These perturbed states are increasingly associated with age-related dysfunction and the onset of neurodegeneration.
https://molecularneurodegeneration.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13024-025-00810-7
