Aging disrupts blood-brain and blood-spinal cord barrier homeostasis, but does not increase paracellular permeability

Blood-CNS barriers protect the CNS from circulating immune cells and damaging molecules. It is thought barrier integrity becomes disrupted with aging, contributing to impaired CNS function. Using genome-wide and targeted molecular approaches, we found aging affected expression of predominantly immune invasion and pericyte-related genes in CNS regions investigated, especially after middle age, with spinal cord being most impacted. We did not find significant perturbation of endothelial cell junction genes or proteins, nor were vascular density or pericyte coverage affected by aging. We evaluated barrier paracellular permeability using small molecular weight tracers, serum protein extravasation, CNS water content, and iron labelling measures. We found no evidence for age-related increased barrier permeability in any of these tests. We conclude that blood-brain (BBB) and blood-spinal cord barrier (BSCB) paracellular permeability does not increase with normal aging in mouse. Whilst expression changes were not associated with increased permeability, they may represent an age-related primed state whereby additional insults cause increased leakiness.