Old human cells can become more youthful by coaxing them to briefly express proteins used to make induced pluripotent cells, Stanford researchers and their colleagues have found. The finding may have implications for aging research.
For the first time, scientists have reprogrammed the stem cells of a 114-year-old woman, the oldest donor to date.
After first transforming cells from her blood sample into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), the researchers then generated mesenchymal stem cells, which help to maintain and repair tissues like bone, cartilage and fat.
“We set out to answer a big question: Can you reprogram cells this old?” says stem cell biologist Evan Snyder at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute in California.
Old human cells return to a more youthful and vigorous state after being induced to briefly express a panel of proteins involved in embryonic development, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
The researchers also found that elderly mice regained youthful strength after their existing muscle stem cells were subjected to the rejuvenating protein treatment and transplanted back into their bodies.
The proteins, known as Yamanaka factors, are commonly used to transform an adult cell into what are known as induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells. Induced pluripotent stem cells can become nearly any type of cell in the body, regardless of the cell from which they originated. They’ve become important in regenerative medicine and drug discovery.
Researchers at Stanford University report that they can rejuvenate human cells by reprogramming them back to a youthful state. They hope that the technique will help in the treatment of diseases, such as osteoarthritis and muscle wasting, that are caused by the aging of tissue cells.
A major cause of aging is thought to be the errors that accumulate in the epigenome, the system of proteins that packages the DNA and controls access to its genes. The Stanford team, led by Tapash Jay Sarkar, Dr. Thomas A. Rando and Vittorio Sebastiano, say their method, designed to reverse these errors and walk back the cells to their youthful state, does indeed restore the cells’ vigor and eliminate signs of aging.
In their report, published on Tuesday in Nature Communications, they described their technique as “a significant step toward the goal of reversing cellular aging” and could produce therapies “for aging and aging-related diseases.”
Researchers at Stanford University have demonstrated they can rejuvenate human cells, making them more like young cells again, by rewinding an epigenetic aging clock.
Old human cells return to a more youthful and vigorous state after being induced to briefly express a panel of proteins involved in embryonic development, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
The researchers also found that elderly mice regained youthful strength after their existing muscle stem cells were subjected to the rejuvenating protein treatment and transplanted back into their bodies.
The proteins, known as Yamanaka factors, are commonly used to transform an adult cell into what are known as induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells. Induced pluripotent stem cells can become nearly any type of cell in the body, regardless of the cell from which they originated. They’ve become important in regenerative medicine and drug discovery.
The hydra is named after the serpent monster from Greek myth, which regrows two heads each time one is cut off. But freshwater hydras have an even more impressive regenerating ability: an entire hydra can regrow from a small piece of tissue in only a few days.
Biologists are particularly excited by this ability, since many of the networks involved in the healing process developed early in the process of evolution, meaning that they are shared among many animals, including humans.
“In other organisms, like humans, once our brain is injured, we have difficulty recovering because the brain lacks the kind of regenerative abilities we see in hydra,” said researcher Abby Primack.
He is a life extension proponent. Most recently he had stem cell treatments.
https://r.search.aol.com/…/…/RS=z6jNC56Uy1xYc8k56jUUir9YRk0
William Shatner, who played the iconic Captain James Tiberius Kirk in Star Trek: The Original Series and seven Star Trek films, turns 89 years young today.
Continue reading “Star Trek’s William Shatner Celebrates His 89th Birthday” »
Andrew Sinclair does not have anything to lose. He takes a number of drugs including the anti-diabetic medication metformin, given to him by his son David, the renowned Australian biologist and professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, to combat the ill-effects of ageing.
David Sinclair says his father remains in good health, travelling, socialising and exercising with the energy of a man far younger than his 80 years.
David Sinclair will discuss why ageing should be classified as a disease at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas.
Continue reading “Flipping the switch on the ageing process” »
Dinorah Delfin has unleashed another exceptional edition of Immortalist Magazine. One of the best aspects is the dueling articles on the future states of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).
Daniel Faggella constructs another dismal, dreary, depressing, destruction of hope for a benevolent artificial general intelligence. Emphasis on depressing. He has a wonderful way of creating a series of logical roadblocks to any optimism that there is a future with a compassionate artificial general intelligence. But he seems to be arguing against a contention that probably nobody believes in. He is arguing that there is no certainty that an artificial general intelligence will be benevolent. Most thinking humanoids are going to agree with that perspective. As he points out forcefully in his concluding and strongest rebuttal: no one knows what the future holds.
But no one is looking for absolute certainty in the far future. Transhumanists in general are looking for a path forward to an existence full of superhappiness, superintelligence and superlongevity.
