This is a huge
breakthrough and it real promise is to fully restore health and vigor to the
elderly. This is no small accomplishment
and will be used much sooner than understood.
Recall that
wild animals show little effect of aging until the last months of their lives
and collapse is then precipitous. The
natural equivalent would be for us to live in full health and vigor until
around ninety eight at which the actual collapse kicks in. It is obviously possible because we are the
actual exceptions that prove the rule.
This tells me
that we now have a simple work around through the thymus which is likely the
cause of our early cycle of decline anyway.
The take home
is to get back in shape and be prepared to work until you are at least ninety
five.
Scientists
regenerate organ in mice in world-first breakthrough
Results on rebuilt thymus in very old mice
potentially open way for helping humans to live longer
theguardian.com, Thursday
10 April 2014 05.11 BST
Scientists rebuilt the thymus of very old
mice, re-establishing its health to that seen in younger ones.
Scientists have regenerated a living
organ for the first time, potentially opening the way for life-lengthening
human therapies.
A team at Edinburgh University’s medical
research centre for regenerative medicine managed to rebuild the thymus of very
old mice, re-establishing the health of the organ seen in younger creatures.
Scientists reactivated a natural mechanism
that shuts down with age to rejuvenate the thymus, an organ near the heart that
produces important infection-fighting white blood cells, called T cells.
By targeting a protein called FOXN1,
which helps control how genes are switched on, the function of the thymus was
restored. Treated mice began to make more T cells.
The research, published in the journal
Development, found the thymus grew to twice its previous size, and the
recovery appeared sustainable. Scientists now will look into any unintended
consequences of increasing FOXN1.
The thymus is the first organ in the human
body to deteriorate as we age, contributing to the declining capacity of older
people to fight off new infections, such as flu.
The breakthrough may lead to treatments that
could significantly elongate human life. But this would be many years away,
given that the process has been tested only on mice.
Professor
Clare Blackburn, who led the research, said: “By targeting a single
protein, we have been able to almost completely reverse age-related shrinking
of the thymus.
“Our results suggest that targeting the
same pathway in humans may improve thymus function and therefore boost immunity
in elderly patients, or those with a suppressed immune system.
“However, before we test this in humans we
need to carry out more work to make sure the process can be tightly
controlled.”
Dr Rob Buckle, head of regenerative medicine
at the medical research centre, said: “This interesting study suggests that
organ regeneration in a mammal can be directed by manipulation of a single
protein, which is likely to have broad implications for other areas of
regenerative biology.”
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