Declutter … your brain?!
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Our brains have tiny blood vessels that help drain out cellular waste. So do clogged brain vessels mean weaker learning and memory?
Kyungdeok Kim and team at Washington University went down the brain drain.
After blocking these drainage vessels in mice, they saw memory WORSEN!
They identified a molecule called IL-6 that pushes the brain’s immune response into inflammation overdrive. Brain signals that normally balance blood flow suddenly became disrupted!
When the team restored drainage, memory improved, especially in older mice!
This study shifts focus from dying neurons to a fixable problem with memory loss: clogged brain drains!
As plumbers say, a royal flush is better than a full house… you know what I mean!
Reference: Kim, K., Abramishvili, D., Du, S., Papadopoulos, Z., Cao, J., Herz, J., Smirnov, I., Thomas, J.-L., Colonna, M., & Kipnis, J. (2025). Meningeal lymphatics–microglia axis regulates synaptic physiology. Cell, 188(10), 2225–2245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2025.02.022