Two papers announced on the theme "Does an adult's brain create new neurons?" Show contradictory results and raise a debate

"Adult brain is newNeuronWill it increase? Two papers published in the same period the "the theme is, despite been studied adopted the same approach, has sparked a debate by showing the opposite conclusion at all.

Human hippocampal neurogenesis drops sharply in children to undetectable levels in adults | Nature
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature25975

Human Hippocampal Neurogenesis Persists throughout Aging: Cell Stem Cell
http://www.cell.com/cell-stem-cell/fulltext/S1934-5909(18)30121-8

Do adult human brains renew their neurons? - Neuroscience
https://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21740397-one-paper-says-yes-another-says-no-do-adult-human-brains-renew-their-neurons

Neuroscientists thought that the brain acquired all neurons immediately after birth for more than a century. However, research in the past two decades has shown that in some species, including humans, new neurons are generated even in adults. However, the contents presented so far are only theoretical explanations, and demonstration has not been done. Therefore, knowing how neurons are generated may lead to the discovery of new treatments for cognitive decline such as "aging", "neurodegenerative disease", "depression" and so on.

Two papers that showed inconsistent results this time,ImmunostainingWe are investigating samples of the brain using a technique called. Dr. Arturo Alvarez Bouilla of the University of California, San Francisco, and Dr. Sean Sórez in a paper published on March 15, 2018 "In adultsNervous developmentIt rarely happens, "he insists. On the other hand, the paper published by Colombian University Dr. Mola Bordolini and René Hen et al. On April 5, 2018 asserts that the neurogenesis is sustained throughout adulthood.

Immunostaining uses antibodies that bind to specific proteins and fluoresce in a specific color. Both teams focused on two proteins, doublecortin (DCX) and PSA-NCAM, which are present in many new neurons. Both teams have confirmed that these proteins aid in the generation of new neurons in the hippocampus of the brain.

ByJason Snyder

Dr. Alvarez Bouaya and Dr. Sóles use DCX and PSA-NCAM as indicators of young neurons and illustrate neurogenesis in prenatal and infant brains, indicating that nerve cells rapidly decrease in the first year after birth . Also, the last neurogenesis occurred in the hippocampus of the brain was 13 years old, which is to support the past idea that "adult brain does not generate new neurons". However, Mr. Bordolini and Mr. Hen show that there were signs of young neurons until 79 years of age.

By publishing two research results, it was decided to argue that "Why did the two research teams adopt the same approach and why they contradicted results?" One of the causes of this difference was that samples used by Dr. Alvarez Bouaya and Dr. Sorce and others were up to 48 hours after death, while samples used by Dr. Bordolini and Dr. Hen were 26 hours after death It was mentioned that it was up to. Rat studies have suggested that DCX is degraded within hours after death and it is pointed out that this difference may have resulted differently.

In addition, although both research teams use immunostaining, it is pointed out that the investigation method differs. In the case of research teams such as Dr. Bordolini and Dr. Hen, only the teenagers and adults were the subjects of the survey. For this reason, it was thought that the fact that we were unable to confirm the change of "greatly decreasing in the first year after birth" confirmed by Dr. Alvarez Bouaya and Dr. Sóllez was the cause of different conclusions being drawn.