Alex Szor
5/20/14
Current Event
Young Blood May be
Key to Reverse Aging
In
a new study done by two scientists from Harvard and Cornell, there has been an
experiment done on mice to look into reverse aging. This experiment consisted
of the scientist removing blood from the younger mouse and putting it in the
older mouse. When testing the scientist got results that showed that when the
younger blood was transfused, the older mice started to show signs of reverse
aging. After the experiment was done the scientist did research on why this was
happening. The scientist found that there was a protein called GDF11 that was
found in the younger mouse’s blood but not the older mouse. Scientists then
researched the protein and found why the protein was making such a big
difference. The protein was increasing the efficiency of stem cells in the
older mouse. As you get older your stem cells start to become less effective
which causes aging. This protein that’s found in the younger mouse speeds up
the stem cells in the older mouse, which is why the ageing process was revered.
A similar study was done several decades ago on rats however the reason for the
results was unknown until this study was done on mice. Stem cells play an important role because the
more efficiently they operate the faster they make cells, which is why when
your younger you heal much more quickly. Since the stem cells in the older
mouse weren’t growing as fast, a lesser amount of cells were being made which
is why the mouse was aging.
This
is very important and could have major implication on the human race. It can
help cure multiple diseases such as Alzheimer’s, heart disease, among multiple
other diseases. Not only can it help medically but also it could have a huge
impact on the market. Since some of the richest doctors are plastic surgeons
this could be an alternate to having surgery. This could also have a negative
impact because of diseases transferred through the blood. It can also leas to
multiple religious debates and over population.
I
really enjoyed this article and I thought it was really well written. I liked
that there was opinions from multiple different doctors from multiple different
medical centers. I also like that it gave a lot of fact and really gave you the
big picture of this experiment. The only thing I wish they did was added more
information on the stem cells and more detail on how they lead to aging.
Besides that I really enjoyed this article and I learned much from it.
Zimmer,
Carl. "Young Blood May Hold Key to Reversing Aging." The New York
Times 4 May 2014. Web.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/05/science/young-blood-may-hold-key-to-reversing-aging.html?ref=science>.
Alex did a great job detailing exactly what the scientists did to determine why the young blood reversed the symptoms of aging in the older mouse. He also clearly explained what the GDF11 protein did, and how increased stem cell efficiency could essentially reverse aging. I also liked his analysis of possible impacts of this technique's use in humans, both positive and negative.
ReplyDeleteI was really surprised to learn that symptoms of aging could be visibly reduced or even reversed by the seemingly simple technique of simply injecting blood from a younger mouse. I was also confused about why scientists did not realize what was happening in the earlier study on rats. I felt that more details about that study would have made the review a bit stronger.
Alex's comment about this new research's implications for diseases such as Alzheimer's and heart disease as well as for industries such as plastic surgery made me wonder about how far this research is from actual applications such as human testing. Overall, the review was extremely interesting and gave a great overview of the topic.