Human umbilical cord plasma proteins revitalize hippocampal function in aged mice

• Published in: Nature (London) Vol. 544; no. 7651; pp. 488 - 492
• Main Authors: Castellano, Joseph M., Mosher, Kira I., Abbey, Rachelle J., McBride, Alisha A., James, Michelle L., Berdnik, Daniela, Shen, Jadon C., Zou, Bende, Xie, Xinmin S., Tingle, Martha, Hinkson, Izumi V., Angst, Martin S., Wyss-Coray, Tony
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 27.04.2017; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 13/1; 14/63; 45/61; 631/250/371; 631/378/1341; 631/378/1595; 631/378/1595/1554; 631/378/3920; 64/60; 82/51; 82/79; Age; Aging - drug effects; Aging - metabolism; Animals; Blood; Blood Proteins - administration & dosage; Blood Proteins - metabolism; Blood Proteins - pharmacology; Central nervous system; Cognition - drug effects; Cognition - physiology; Cognitive ability; Developmental stages; Female; Fetal Blood - chemistry; Gene expression; Genomes; Hippocampus - cytology; Hippocampus - drug effects; Hippocampus - physiology; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; letter; Long-Term Potentiation - drug effects; Male; Maze Learning - drug effects; Maze Learning - physiology; Memory; Mice; multidisciplinary; Neurogenesis; Neuronal Plasticity - drug effects; Neuronal Plasticity - physiology; Neurons - drug effects; Neurons - physiology; Plasma; Plasticity; Protein Array Analysis; Proteins; Rodents; Science; Spatial Memory - drug effects; Spatial Memory - physiology; Tissue Inhibitor of Metalloproteinase-2 - administration & dosage; Tissue Inhibitor of Metalloproteinase-2 - antagonists & inhibitors; Tissue Inhibitor of Metalloproteinase-2 - metabolism; Tissue Inhibitor of Metalloproteinase-2 - pharmacology; Umbilical cord; Young adults
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/nature22067

Treatment with plasma of an early developmental stage, human umbilical cord, revitalizes the hippocampus and improves cognitive function in aged mice. Human umbilical cord blood enhances cognition Aging leads to changes in cognitive function that can lead to neurological disorders. Tony Wyss-Coray and colleagues show that human umbilical cord plasma is able to revitalize the hippocampus and improve cognitive function in aged mice. They find that tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases 2 (TIMP2), a blood-borne factor, is enriched in human cord plasma, young mouse plasma and young mouse hippocampi. It enters the brain following systemic administration and is necessary for the cognitive benefits conferred by cord plasma. Systemic TIMP2 is also essential for spatial memory in young mice, while treatment of brain slices with TIMP2 antibody prevents long-term potentiation, suggesting that TIMP2 has a role in normal hippocampal function. Ageing drives changes in neuronal and cognitive function, the decline of which is a major feature of many neurological disorders. The hippocampus, a brain region subserving roles of spatial and episodic memory and learning, is sensitive to the detrimental effects of ageing at morphological and molecular levels. With advancing age, synapses in various hippocampal subfields exhibit impaired long-term potentiation 1 , an electrophysiological correlate of learning and memory. At the molecular level, immediate early genes are among the synaptic plasticity genes that are both induced by long-term potentiation 2 , 3 , 4 and downregulated in the aged brain 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 . In addition to revitalizing other aged tissues 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , exposure to factors in young blood counteracts age-related changes in these central nervous system parameters 14 , 15 , 16 , although the identities of specific cognition-promoting factors or whether such activity exists in human plasma remains unknown 17 . We hypothesized that plasma of an early developmental stage, namely umbilical cord plasma, provides a reservoir of such plasticity-promoting proteins. Here we show that human cord plasma treatment revitalizes the hippocampus and improves cognitive function in aged mice. Tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases 2 (TIMP2), a blood-borne factor enriched in human cord plasma, young mouse plasma, and young mouse hippocampi, appears in the brain after systemic administration and increases synaptic plasticity and hippocampal-dependent cognition in aged mice. Depletion experiments in aged mice revealed TIMP2 to be necessary for the cognitive benefits conferred by cord plasma. We find that systemic pools of TIMP2 are necessary for spatial memory in young mice, while treatment of brain slices with TIMP2 antibody prevents long-term potentiation, arguing for previously unknown roles for TIMP2 in normal hippocampal function. Our findings reveal that human cord plasma contains plasticity-enhancing proteins of high translational value for targeting ageing- or disease-associated hippocampal dysfunction.