In our ever-aging world population, the risk of age-related neuropathies has been increasing, representing both a social and economic burden to society. Since the ability to regenerate in the adult mammalian central nervous system is very limited, brain trauma and neurodegeneration are often permanent. As a consequence, novel scientific challenges have emerged and many research efforts currently focus on triggering repair in the damaged or diseased brain. Nevertheless, stimulating neuroregeneration remains ambitious. Even though important discoveries have been made over the past decades, they did not translate into a therapy yet. Actually, this is not surprising; while these disorders mainly manifest in aged individuals, most of the research is being performed in young animal models. Aging of neurons and their environment, however, greatly affects the central nervous system and its capacity to repair. This review provides a detailed overview of the impact of aging on central nervous system functioning and regeneration potential, both in non-regenerating and spontaneously regenerating animal models. Additionally, we highlight the need for aging animal models with regenerative capacities in the search for neuroreparative strategies.

在我们这个不断老龄化的世界人口中，与年龄有关的神经病的风险一直在增加，对社会构成了社会和经济负担。由于在成年哺乳动物的中枢神经系统中再生的能力非常有限，因此脑外伤和神经变性通常是永久性的。结果，出现了新的科学挑战，并且目前许多研究工作集中在触发受损或患病的大脑的修复上。然而，刺激神经再生仍然雄心勃勃。尽管过去几十年来已经取得了重要的发现，但它们尚未转化为一种疗法。实际上，这并不奇怪。尽管这些疾病主要表现在老年个体中，但大多数研究仍在年轻的动物模型中进行。然而，神经元及其环境的老化，大大影响中枢神经系统及其修复能力。这篇综述详细介绍了在非再生和自发再生动物模型中衰老对中枢神经系统功能和再生潜力的影响。此外，我们强调在寻找神经修复策略时需要具有再生能力的衰老动物模型。