In the hippocampus, the expression of calbindin-1 (Calb1), a Ca2+-buffering protein, increases during postnatal development and decreases with aging and neurodegenerative disorders.
Since calbindin gene expression decreased specifically in brain areas known to be particularly affected in aging and in each of the neurodegenerative diseases, these findings suggest that decreased calbindin gene expression may lead to a failure of calcium buffering or intraneuronal calcium homeostasis, which contributes to calcium-mediated cytotoxic events during aging and in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases.