Hyperbaric oxygen therapy restores cognitive function and hippocampal pathologies in both aging and aging-obese rats

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy for healthy aging: From mechanisms to therapeutics

“…The brain is known as an immune-privileged organ, in which astrocytes act in concert with microglia in neuroinflammation during normal aging, leading to cognitive impairment [ 65 ]. HBOT can attenuate neuroinflammatory processes by reducing astrocytes and microglia activation in different animal models including aging [ 66 ], Alzheimer's Disease (AD) [ 67 ] and brain injury [ 68 ]. These results confirm that HBOT's effects on inflammatory cells are not limited to those in the blood circulation.…”

“…Two classic tools to identify senescent cells in vivo include senescence-associated beta galactosidase (SA-β-gal) and cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors including p16 and p21 [ 97 ]. Intriguingly, in two independent reports, HBOT respectively showed its ability to attenuate aging markers in the hippocampus of d -galactose (D-gal)-induced aging mice, as demonstrated by decreased number of SA-β-gal positive cells [ 66 ] and reduced expression of key components of the senescence program, such as p16, p21 and p53 [ 71 ]. It has also been shown that HBOT can reduce the number of SA-β-gal positive cells in cardiomyocytes in aging pre-diabetic rats [ 98 ].…”

“…Unfortunately, neither telomerase activity nor the expression of CD57, the most reliable surface marker for T cell senescence, was evaluated in this study, complicating the interpretation of the results. In addition to the effect of HBOT on circulating immune cells, the restoration of telomere length was also observed in the hippocampus after HBOT in aging and obese rats with shortened telomeres [ 66 ]. By and large, HBOT makes a difference in inhibiting telomere shortening, but it remains to be clarified how hyperbaric oxygen targets telomeres and how its response relates to different conditions.…”

A General Overview on the Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy: Applications, Mechanisms and Translational Opportunities

“…Hachmo et al [ 195 ] reported the effect of hyperbaric oxygen in the prevention of telomere shortening and immunosenescence by the clearance of senescent immune cells. In this line, other studies have reported the same results in the aging skin, through the acceleration of epidermal basal cells proliferation [ 196 ], in the endothelial cells, where it induces antioxidants expression [ 197 ] and also in the brain, where HBOT appears to improve the cerebral blood flow [ 198 ], restoring cognitive parameters, hippocampal functions and even improved insulin resistance in both normal-weigh and obese aging rats [ 199 ].…”

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Attenuates Burn-Induced Denervated Muscle Atrophy

“…HBOT attenuates inflammation and oxidative reactions by improving tissue oxygen starvation in experimental-induced skeletal muscle injury and colitis models [10,11]. Moreover, the neuroprotective effects of HBOT reduce cognitive impairment [12][13][14]. Mu et al reported that delayed HBOT (started 48 h after ischemic brain injury) increased regenerative cell proliferation [15].…”