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Diet-related death of neurons in the ageing gut: causes and effects

Reference	SAG10013
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Dr Margaret Saffrey
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Dr Timothy Cowen, Dr C Hoyle
Institution	Open University
Department	Life, Health & Chemical Sciences
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	263,466
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/10/1998
End date	30/11/2001
Duration	37 months

Abstract

Impaired mobility of the gut is associated with ageing in both humans and animals and is likely to be a cause of constipation, which affects the quality of life of many elderly individuals. Numbers of enteric neurons are significantly reduced in ageing, and preliminary work indicates that loss of cholinergic myenteric neurons in the ageing rat gut is linked to ad libitum feeding; but the time course, functional correlates and cellular mechanisms of this loss have not yet been determined. The aim of the proposed work is therefore to investigate the hypothesis that a failure of neurotrophic support increases vulnerability of ageing enteric cholinergic motor neurons to diet- induced free radical damage, leading to their death by apoptosis.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Genes & Developmental Biology (GDB)
Research Topics	X – not assigned to a current Research Topic
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	Initiative on Science of Ageing (SAG) [1998]
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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