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Do all body tissues age independently, or does some central process affect the pace with which tissues age? A team from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine found that, as mice age, levels of two molecules that initiate the inflammatory response rise gradually in the brain, particularly in the hypothalamus. Along with increases in these two molecules — IκB kinase-β (IKK-β) and nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) — the concentration of the proinflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor α also rises. Increases in IKK-β and NF-κB directly cause a decline in gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH).
Mice that were genetically engineered to underproduce IKK-β and NF-κB in the hypothalamus created more new neurons and solved mazes more quickly, had greater …