If you have seen the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, then you know that the main character lived his life backwards. Instead of aging he grew younger. In a study by Ronald DePinho, director of the Belfer Institute of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and colleagues at Harvard Medical School, they were able to reverse the signs of aging in frail mice.
In this study, they engineered mice that aged rapidly and did not produce an enzyme called telomerase. This enzyme protects the ends of DNA from being lost during DNA replication. They gave the mice a special form of estrogen that caused the mice to produce the enzyme only when this supplement was given. The mice with no telomerase production in a previous study did not live passed 6 months rather than the normal 3 year lifespan.
The results show that after 4 weeks of giving the mice this time released estrogen there was noticeable rejuvenation in these weak mice. They became fertile, their brains and other organs grew, and their cognitive ability improved. However, they do not know if aging can be delayed in a normal mouse.
These types of studies can help give hope to human aging-diseases, like progeria which causes very rapid aging, because telomerase has a similar function in humans. There is of course risks in doing human trials. Extra amounts of telomerase can cause tumors in normal mice. It could be possible that this effect can occur in humans as well.
-Katie Cyr (A)
Wow…that’s amazing that it only took 4 weeks for these mice to experience reversal of the aging process. Did the researchers indicate whether the mice were able to reach the normal 3 year lifespan? As you mentioned, this research also has important applications to humans. Did the researchers say what experiments they hope to perform next?
ReplyDeletePosted by Katie Kalutkiewicz
I wasn't even aware that there were diseases that made you age more quickly. The effect happening so quickly is really surprising. Benjamin Button completely confused me, and thinking about this happening in science today is almost overwhelming. Hopefully the research can help our with a lot of disease. Very cool finding!
ReplyDelete-Bailey