Slashdot Mirror
Scientists Reverse Aging In Human Cell Lines
Eloking writes: Professor Jun-Ichi Hayashi from the University of Tsukuba in Japan has discovered the regulation of two genes involved with the production of glycine are partly responsible for some of the characteristics of aging. With this finding he has been able to "flip the switches on a few genes back to their youthful position, effectively reversing the aging process." The Professor's findings cast doubt on the mitochondrial theory of aging, which proposes that the accumulation of mutations in the mitochondrial DNA are responsible for aging.
Can you break this down for me sesame street style? 31 year old alcoholic idiot here...
1) Don't drink so much.
2) Not all of our genes are active. For example, if you exercise then certain genes activate (presumably ones that say 'big muscles?').
3) When we get old, our 'aging' genes activate.
4) These scientists found a way to 'deactivate' the aging genes.
I have no idea if that made more sense. I don't think this is the only problem with aging, though; here is a list of known problems.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
ok, so imagine a library with books on all kinds of subjects. You're only interested in say, space rockets. So, you're only reading those books and the rest just sit on the shelf. Now, every cell with a nucleus (red blood cells excluded among others) has the full DNA library. DNA is like the library in that it is a string of genes which are like the books in a library. Think of genes like recipes or instructions- they code for specific proteins. These proteins make things happen in your body. The liver only activates the genes dealing with the liver even though it has the full library. The kidney only activates genes dealing with the kidney and so on.
Epigenetics says that certain external factors can cause specific genes to be activated when conditions are right. Let's say you are grilling out. You walk past the grill and get a face full of smoke from it. Your eyes water because of it. Your eyes wouldn't normally water like this but smoke irritated them and your body's response was to flush your eyes. So, you have an external stimulus that provokes a response. This is much what epigenetics is like. So, you have genes that may never get activated for your entire life. Others are activated every day. Epigenetics says that certain genes need a specific something to happen and then those genes are activated. Along the same thought, epigenetics says active genes could be shut down based on conditions.
From the viewpoint of a biologist, life is about reproduction. You're born, you grow, you enter puberty, you reproduce, you nurture your young, and then, well, not much point in keeping you around as you've filled your function. So, middle age comes and we start to grow old. Women go through menopause as they're no longer viable to reproduce. Men have different things that happen to them. Regardless, they're now getting old. The things the body did to support you as a breeder no longer have a function and stop working. You grow old and die. Depressing, right? But what if we could re-activate things. What if we could tell the body to keep on working as if you're a breeder? Could we somehow use an external chemical to make your cells think you're still a breeder? If so, your body would continue to function as if you were younger than middle age.
That's what adult stem cells are for.