FGF Signaling Is Necessary for Neurogenesis in Young Mice and Sufficient to Reverse Its Decline in Old Mice

The mechanisms regulating hippocampal neurogenesis remain poorly understood. Particularly unclear is the extent to which age-related declines in hippocampal neurogenesis are due to an innate decrease in precursor cell performance or to changes in the environment of these cells. Several extracellular signaling factors that regulate hippocampal neurogenesis have been identified. However, the role of one important family, FGFs, remains uncertain. Although a body of literature suggests that FGFs can promote the proliferation of cultured adult hippocampal precursor cells, their requirement for adult hippocampal neurogenesis in vivo and the cell types within the neurogenic lineage that might depend on FGFs remain unclear. Here, specifically targeting adult neural precursor cells, we conditionally express an activated form of an FGF receptor or delete the FGF receptors that are expressed in these cells. We find that FGF receptors are required for neural stem-cell maintenance and that an activated receptor expressed in all precursors can increase the number of neurons produced. Moreover, in older mice, an activated FGF receptor can rescue the age-related decline in neurogenesis to a level found in young adults. These results suggest that the decrease in neurogenesis with age is not simply due to fewer stem cells, but also to declining signals in their niche. Thus, enhancing FGF signaling in precursors can be used to reverse age-related declines in hippocampal neurogenesis.

Hippocampal deficits can result from trauma, neurodegeneration, or aging and can lead to loss of memory and mood control. The addition of new neurons to the hippocampus facilitates memory formation, but how this process is regulated and how we might manipulate it to reverse hippocampal dysfunction remains unclear. The FGF signaling pathway has been hypothesized to be important, but its role in generating new neurons had been poorly defined. Our study indicates that FGF signaling maintains and expands subsets of neural precursor cells. Moreover, in older mice, increasing FGF signaling is sufficient to reverse the decline in neuron production to levels found in young adults, providing a potential means of reversing age-related hippocampal deficits.