Cited by 114Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology ResearchNeuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration MechanismsGenetics and Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Specific factors in blood from young but not old mice directly promote synapse formation and NMDA-receptor recruitment

Open access
Gan, Kathlyn J., Südhof, Thomas C.·2019·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Abstract

Significance: Cognitive function decreases during aging, but the mechanisms involved remain unclear. Revolutionary recent studies revealed that introduction of blood from young mice into old mice increased cognitive abilities and synaptic connectivity, suggesting that young blood contains specific factors supporting cognitive function. Here, we asked whether young blood is enriched in factors that act directly on neurons to promote synapse formation. We show that serum from young but not old mice indeed directly boosts synapse formation in cultured neurons, and identify two factors, thrombospondin-4 and SPARCL1, that are enriched in young blood and mediate these effects. Thus, our experiments show that young blood is enriched in multiple factors that directly promote synaptic connectivity between neurons.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1073/pnas.1902672116

Cites

61 of 61 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • In in vitro experiments, thrombospondin-4 and SPARC-like protein 1 act directly on neurons to stimulate synapse formation and enhance synaptic responses.

    “In in vitro experiments, thrombospondin-4 (THBS4) and SPARC-like protein 1 (SPARCL1) act directly on neurons to stimulate synapse formation and enhance synaptic responses.387”
  • Proteomic and functional validation experiments suggest that the young blood effect is at least partly mediated by SPARC1L and thrombospondin-4.

    “Proteomic and functional validation experiments suggest that the effect is at least partly mediated by SPARC1L and thrombospondin-4 (Gan and Südhof, 2019).”

    From Alzheimer Disease: An Update on Pathobiology and Treatment Strategies (2019) · cites this paper as Gan and Südhof, 2019

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

1 retracted

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Gan, K. J., & Südhof, T. C.
Affiliations
  • Stanford Medicine (US)
  • Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
Venue
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Published
2019-06-03
Volume
116
Issue
25
Pages
12524-12533
ISSN
  • 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
  • 1091-6490
OpenAlex
W2948768968
Cited by
114
References
61
Citations by year
2026: 7 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 24 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 4
FWCI
7.52
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • HHS | NIH | National Institute of Mental Health (MH052804)
  • NIMH (MH092931)
  • Canadian HIV Trials Network, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (MFE-141209)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration Mechanisms
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetics and Neurodevelopmental Disorders
Keywords
thrombospondin-4, NMDA receptor, synaptogenesis, dendritic branching, synaptic connectivity, serum proteins, aging, synaptic transmission
MeSH terms
Age Factors, Aging, Animals, Calcium-Binding Proteins, Cells, Cultured, Female, Humans, Male, Synaptic Transmission, Synapses, Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate, Extracellular Matrix Proteins, Thrombospondins, Mice

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review