Morphologic changes in cerebellar mitochondria during aging.

Abstract

The present findings further extend the results of our previous studies on the ultrastructure of synaptic mitochondria and support the concept of marked metabolic impairment as a basal detrimental condition in the process of brain aging. As a marker of metabolically active mitochondria at high rates of cellular respiration, our present data document that with advancing age the number of efficient organelles decreases and that this may be of critical importance for the proper function of nerve cells when the energy demand is high.