Impact of caloric restriction in the aging mammalian brain
Although lifespan extension and cognitive decline has been attributed to calorie restriction across species but the role of specific cell populations and molecular pathways involved remain less understood.
The researchers generate a temporal single-cell and spatial transcriptomic atlas to reveal the effect of caloric restriction (CR) on mouse brain aging.
The authors show that CR delayed expansion of inflammatory cell populations, preserved neural precursor cells, and broadly reduced the expression of aging-associated genes involved in cellular stress, senescence, inflammation, and DNA damage.
They also demonstrate that CR restored the expression of region-specific genes linked to cognitive function, myelin maintenance, and circadian rhythm.
Thus, this study shows that CR rescues key aging-associated cell population changes and transcriptional signatures, providing mechanistic details of how CR slows the aging process.
https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(25)00936-2
