Impact of very old age on the expression of cervical spinal cord cell markers in rats.

Aging is a process associated with both anatomical changes and loss of expression of some cell markers. Intermediate filaments are known to impart mechanical stability to cells and tissues. Some of them are present in different cell populations of the central nervous system. In order to explore the impact of extreme age we immunohistochemically characterized the changes in intermediate filaments and other cellular markers present in cells populating the gray matter cervical spinal cord of very old rats (28 months) taking young (5 months) counterparts as a reference. The spinal cord weight of the senile animals (12.6+/-1.1 g) was significantly higher (P<0.001) than that of the young animals (8.4+/-1.1 g). Spinal cord length also increased significantly (P<0.05) with age (7.9+/-0.3 cm vs. 8.28+/-0.1 cm for young and senile, respectively). An increase in both neurofilament staining area and density was observed in senile rats in comparison to young animals. A significant (P<0.05) age-related increment in the mean area of the cervical segments was observed. Vimentin expression in the ependymal zone decreased in area and intensity during aging. Our data show that there are some significant changes in the morphological and histochemical patterns of the cervical spinal cord in senile rats. However, they do not necessarily represent a pathologic situation and may rather reflect plastic reorganization.