Seeing White Matter Aging Through the Visual System

Dr. Janos Groh from the Technical University of Munich explores how the visual system can be used to uncover the cellular, molecular, and neuroinflammatory mechanisms driving white matter aging.

Aging is accompanied by progressive white matter degeneration that compromises brain connectivity and function. Defects in myelinating glial cells together with chronic neuroinflammation contribute to this process. Recent work from the Groh laboratory has shown that dysfunctional microglia promote the recruitment and retention of pathogenic CD8+ T cells in aging white matter through chemokine-mediated signaling. By integrating single-cell and spatial transcriptomics with functional analyses of the visual system, the group investigates the cellular and molecular interactions between glial and immune cells that drive white matter pathology in aging mice. These findings identify microglia–immune cell crosstalk as a central mechanism of age-related neurodegeneration and highlight potential therapeutic targets.

The visual system can serve as a sentinel of age-related white matter decline. Attendees will gain insight into how complementary methodologies can be integrated to investigate structural, functional, and molecular changes associated with white matter aging in mice.