Accelerated aging in mice with astrocytic redox imbalance as a consequence of SOD2 deletion.

Aging of the central nervous system (CNS) leads to motoric and cognitive decline and increases the probability for neurodegenerative disease development. Astrocytes fulfill central homeostatic functions in the CNS including regulation of immune responses and metabolic support of neurons and oligodendrocytes. In this study, we investigated the effect of redox imbalance in astrocytes by using a conditional astrocyte-specific SOD2-deficient mouse model (SOD2 ) and analyzed these animals at different stages of their life.