MINI REVIEW article
Front. Aging Neurosci.
Sec. Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms of Brain-aging
Volume 17 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2025.1642043
This article is part of the Research TopicSex-dependent modulation of neuroinflammation in the aging brainView all articles
Sex Differences in the Outcomes of Modifiable Lifestyle Factors for Cognitive Aging: Neuroinflammation and Microglia as Key Underlying Mechanisms
Provisionally accepted
- University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada
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Microglia are the resident immune cells of the brain. Over the past two decades, they have been shown to play critical roles throughout life. Microglia are now considered to be important for brain formation, maturation, activity and plasticity, with outcomes on behaviour and other cognitive domains. With this knowledge, microglia represent a promising therapeutic target to promote brain health along an aging trajectory. Emerging evidence also indicates that modifiable lifestyle factors for cognitive aging can influence the brain and behaviour by acting on microglia. The mechanisms identified so far involve their roles in synaptic plasticity, axonal myelination, and adult neurogenesis, exerted through the modulation of brain inflammation ('neuroinflammation'), the release of trophic factors, and phagocytosis. In this mini-review, we will cover the outcomes of exercise, diet. and social isolation on microglial functions during aging. Sex differences in the identified outcomes on cognitive aging and the underlying mechanisms will be highlighted. Our goal with this mini-review is to stimulate further research on this important topic. Commented [ZG1]: Some ideas for keywords! We can have 5-8 Commented [MT2R1]: thanks! I added 2 more :-)
Keywords: microglia1, cognitive aging2, sex differences3, Diet4, exercise5, social isolation6, Animal Models7, human studies8
Received: 05 Jun 2025; Accepted: 08 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Coleborn, Gilson, Guo and Tremblay. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Marie-Ève Tremblay, University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada
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