Chapter 8 Neuroendocrine Aspects of the Aging Brain

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This chapter focuses on two neuroendocrine axes, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) and the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis (HPO), to illustrate approaches and findings that clearly establish that changes in hypothalamic/pituitary function are important during aging. The purpose of choosing these two systems is that they provide a significant body of neuroanatomical, neurophysiological, cellular, and molecular data. These two neuroendocrine axes also serve as paradigms of complex neuroendocrine systems that require exquisitely balanced feedback systems for maintenance of function. Recent advances in the neuroendocrinology of aging have been facilitated by several methodological advances, including patch clamping single cells, which permit quantitative measurement of single channel activity; in situ hybridization, which allows analysis of gene expression in individual cells; tract-tracing methods that enable investigators to follow neuronal pathways for considerable distances; and microdialysis of specific brain regions, which permits monitoring of neurochemical events over time in individual animals. Using such techniques, it deciphers the neural events that regulate endocrine changes in the periphery.

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