Structural, Metabolic Efficiency and Functional Monitoring : of the Cerebellum and Basal Ganglia during Aging

Our understanding of the mechanisms responsible for decline of human mental capabilities which accompany aging became one of the major concerns of modern gerontology. Our understanding of their structure, organization, function and implication in diseases and age-related changes has increased equally. The most recent global analysis of the pathogenesis of aging process of BG and cerebellum at the molecular level suggested that aging resulted in a gene expression profile indicative of an inflammatory response, oxidative stress, alteration in mitochondrial DNA, loss of homeostasis (dynamic equilibrium) in and out of the neuron and reduced neuro-trophic support in both brain regions. Recent work provides a clue to avoid the unwanted age-related disorders, first of all caloric restriction which retards the aging process as it selectively attenuates the age associated induction of genes encoding inflammatory and stress response.