Regional alterations of the NO/NOS system in the aging brain: a biochemical, histochemical and immunochemical study in the rat.

We have used several approaches (immunohistochemistry and enzyme histochemistry, Western blotting, biochemical assay of Ca(2+)-dependent catalytic activity) in order to detect differences in neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) expression and activity in various brain regions of young-adult (4-month-old) and aged (28-month-old) rats. In most of the brain regions examined (striatum, neocortex, olfactory cortex and hippocampus) some significant decrease in the density per unit area of nNOS neurons, detected either through immunohistochemistry or enzyme histochemistry, was observed in aged rats. However, only in the striatum and olfactory cortex this was accompanied by a significant decrease of the catalytic activity of the constitutive, Ca(2+)-dependent NOS form. In these two regions, the relative level of expression of nNOS protein was also significantly decreased, as assessed by Western blotting of proteic extracts from young-adult and aged rats. Other observed differences were a paler stain of neurons in some brain areas of the aged rats and differences of cellular compartmentalization of the protein in the same rats, as assessed through confocal microscopy. The present observations demonstrate that the expression and activity of nNOS show regionally-specific alterations in the brain of aged healthy rats, with a trend towards decrease, rather than toward increase as suggested by some previous reports. Therefore, hypotheses implicating nitric oxide increase in brain aging should be reconsidered on the basis of a clear-cut distinction between the physiological and the pathological aspects of the aging process.