Age-associated reduction of nuclear shape dynamics in excitatory neurons of the visual cortex

• Published in: Aging cell Vol. 22; no. 9; p. e13925
• Main Authors: Frey, Tanita, Murakami, Tomonari, Maki, Koichiro, Kawaue, Takumi, Tani, Naoki, Sugai, Ayaka, Nakazawa, Naotaka, Ishiguro, Kei-Ichiro, Adachi, Taiji, Kengaku, Mineko, Ohki, Kenichi, Gotoh, Yukiko, Kishi, Yusuke
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.09.2023; John Wiley and Sons Inc
• Subjects: Age; Cortex (temporal); Neurodegenerative diseases; Neuroimaging; Neurons; Phenotypes; Visual cortex; SUN1; nuclear shape; visual cortex; neuronal activity; nuclear stiffness; aging; neurons
• ISSN: 1474-9718; 1474-9726; 1474-9726
• DOI: 10.1111/acel.13925

Neurons decline in their functionality over time, and age-related neuronal alterations are associated with phenotypes of neurodegenerative diseases. In nonneural tissues, an infolded nuclear shape has been proposed as a hallmark of aged cells and neurons with infolded nuclei have also been reported to be associated with neuronal activity. Here, we performed time-lapse imaging in the visual cortex of Nex-Cre;SUN1-GFP mice. Nuclear infolding was observed within 10 min of stimulation in young nuclei, while the aged nuclei were already infolded pre-stimulation and showed reduced dynamics of the morphology. In young nuclei, the depletion of the stimuli restored the nucleus to a spherical shape and reduced the dynamic behavior, suggesting that nuclear infolding is a reversible process. We also found the aged nucleus to be stiffer than the young one, further relating to the age-associated loss of nuclear shape dynamics. We reveal temporal changes in the nuclear shape upon external stimulation and observe that these morphological dynamics decrease with age.