[T]wo teams of scientists have published three papers that offer a detailed description of the brain's waste-removal system. Their insights could help researchers better understand, treat and perhaps prevent a broad range of brain disorders.
The papers, all published in the journal Nature, suggest that during sleep, slow electrical waves push the fluid around cells from deep in the brain to its surface. There, a sophisticated interface allows the waste products in that fluid to be absorbed into the bloodstream, which takes them to the liver and kidneys to be removed from the body.
One of the waste products carried away is amyloid, the substance that forms sticky plaques in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease.
There's growing evidence that in Alzheimer's disease, the brain's waste-removal system is impaired, says Jeffrey Iliff, who studies neurodegenerative diseases at the University of Washington but was not a part of the new studies.
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The new studies come more than a decade after Iliff and Dr. Maiken Nedergaard, a Danish scientist, first proposed that the clear fluids in and around the brain are part of a system to wash away waste products.
The scientists named it the glymphatic system, a nod to the body's lymphatic system, which helps fight infection, maintain fluid levels and filter out waste products and abnormal cells.
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Kipnis and his team began looking at what the brain was doing as it slept. As part of that effort, they measured the power of a slow electrical wave that appears during deep sleep in animals.
And they realized something: "By measuring the wave, we are also measuring the flow of interstitial fluid," the liquid found in the spaces around cells, Kipnis says.
It turned out that the waves were acting as a signal, synchronizing the activity of neurons and transforming them into tiny pumps that push fluid toward the brain's surface, the team reported in February in the journal Nature.
In a second paper published in the same issue of Nature, a team led by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology provided more evidence that slow electrical waves help clear out waste.
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Tests showed that [in mice], the waves increased the flow of clean cerebrospinal fluid into the brain and the flow of dirty fluid out of the brain. They also showed that the fluid was carrying amyloid, the substance that builds up in the brains of Alzheimer's patients.
In a paper published a few weeks earlier, Kipnis had shown how waste, including amyloid, appeared to be crossing the protective membrane that usually isolates the brain.
Kipnis and his team focused on a vein that passes through this membrane.
"Around the vein, you have a sleeve, which is never fully sealed," he says. "That's where the [cerebrospinal fluid] is coming out" and transferring waste to the body's lymphatic system.
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Iliff says many of the new findings in mice still need to be confirmed in people.
Both of my grandfathers have had different forms of brain degradation diseases, and every time I see an article like this it makes me think "how can I do X to help myself in the future". So...
Both of my grandfathers have had different forms of brain degradation diseases, and every time I see an article like this it makes me think "how can I do X to help myself in the future". So naturally I think "well obviously I need to flush my brain often".
It's a pretty low possibility that I will have either of the things my grandfathers had, but it still makes me hope that there will be more options when I get older.
Part of the reason I am a vegetarian is to minimize the amount of red meat that I eat. I ate way too much in my 20s. I had read about 7 years ago that excessive red meat can lead to brain diseases. Who knows if it is helping.
Looks like five years ago someone posted a study a showing that deep sleep is important for doing this sort of cleanup. (I found it because it's the only other topic tagged as glymphatic system.)...
Looks like five years ago someone posted a study a showing that deep sleep is important for doing this sort of cleanup. (I found it because it's the only other topic tagged as glymphatic system.)
Unfortunately, people tend to sleep more lightly as they get older. But taking care of any health problems that affect sleep probably helps.
Thanks for sharing, sleep always seems to be the number one thing to help the body recover. I'm a pretty light sleeper, hopefully that doesn't cause issues in the future.
Thanks for sharing, sleep always seems to be the number one thing to help the body recover. I'm a pretty light sleeper, hopefully that doesn't cause issues in the future.
From the article:
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Both of my grandfathers have had different forms of brain degradation diseases, and every time I see an article like this it makes me think "how can I do X to help myself in the future". So naturally I think "well obviously I need to flush my brain often".
It's a pretty low possibility that I will have either of the things my grandfathers had, but it still makes me hope that there will be more options when I get older.
Part of the reason I am a vegetarian is to minimize the amount of red meat that I eat. I ate way too much in my 20s. I had read about 7 years ago that excessive red meat can lead to brain diseases. Who knows if it is helping.
Looks like five years ago someone posted a study a showing that deep sleep is important for doing this sort of cleanup. (I found it because it's the only other topic tagged as glymphatic system.)
Unfortunately, people tend to sleep more lightly as they get older. But taking care of any health problems that affect sleep probably helps.
Thanks for sharing, sleep always seems to be the number one thing to help the body recover. I'm a pretty light sleeper, hopefully that doesn't cause issues in the future.