Nervous system ontogeny: clue of aging and synaptic plasticity? - "There is a pattern: the clue is to understand it"

Up to now, the cellular and molecular bases of aging and neural plasticity remain unknown. This paper analyzes this problem Front a developmental point of view, taking into consideration the coexistence of different cellular micro environments coexisting in the nervous system (NS), predetermined by specific developmental pathway, which directly influence the nervous function in the organism, The developmental changes in the subunit composition of the NMDA subtype of glutamate receptors is analyzed Following this approach, and changes demonstrated in these structures are compared with those observed in receptors front differentiated nervous tissues as a consequence of plastic phenomena. Finally, based on the results of this analysis we postulate an li,hypothesis relating the developmental changes to the Alzheimer's disease.