Stem cell theory of aging

Neuroscience

Enzyme

Progenitor cell

Stem cell factor

Autophagy

Biology

Neural stem cell

Apoptosis

Lysosome

Stem cell

Proteostasis

Cell biology

Biochemistry

Science

Lysosomes keep neuronal stem cells young An important consequence of aging is loss of regenerative capacity in stem cells, particularly those of the nervous system. Leeman et al. isolated quiescent and activated stem cells from mice and compared their transcriptomes. The findings emphasize the role of large lysosomes in quiescent neuronal stem cells in which aggregated proteins accumulate. Treatments that stimulated lysosomal function allowed aged quiescent stem cells to clear protein aggregates and restored the cells' ability to be activated. Such restoration of stem cell function might alleviate compromised proteostasis in aging. Science , this issue p. 1277

Lysosome activation clears aggregates and enhances quiescent neural stem cell activation during aging