Single-cell study maps midlife remodeling in the aging human hippocampus

A single-cell analysis of human hippocampal tissue finds major shifts in immune cells, genome organization, and gene regulation between roughly ages 50 and 75, according to a SciTechDaily report on research led with the New York Genome Center and published in Science. Researchers mapped gene regulation and three-dimensional genome architecture across the adult lifespan in the hippocampus, a region central to learning and memory. SciTechDaily reported that embryonic-lineage microglia declined sharply in that midlife window and were replaced by cells whose profiles resembled circulating blood immune cells, with stronger inflammatory signatures. The writeup also describes substantial losses among cell populations that help maintain the blood-brain barrier, plus progressive loss of organized three-dimensional genome structure across several brain cell types. The work is one of six Science papers tied to the NIH 4D Nucleome program. The paper lists DOI 10.1126/science.adt8307.