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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.

35 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. What is responsible for aging? by fustakrakich · · Score: 2, Funny

    Time

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    1. Re:What is responsible for aging? by penguinoid · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Time

      No, irreparable damage. Note that what is irreparable depends on level of technology.

      Examples of potentially irreparable damage: DNA damage, oxidative damage, toxin accumulation, damage to extracellular matrix, scarring, changes in gene activity, and more.

      Note: Your cell line has lived for about 3,600,000,000 years. The trick to living 3,600,000,000 years is to repair damage faster than it occurs, for example by reproducing cells at sufficient rate that new undamaged material is created faster than damage accumulates.

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    2. Re:What is responsible for aging? by DigiShaman · · Score: 2

      Note: Your cell line has lived for about 3,600,000,000 years. The trick to living 3,600,000,000 years is to repair damage faster than it occurs

      Yeah, no, not so much. It's more like compiling an OS, using it for 90 years (if you're lucky), then collect the best matching code from another computer and recompile into a fresh new drive. Eventually, the two original OSes running on their respective computers will fail from bloat and mismanagement. In effect, defective by design.

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    3. Re:What is responsible for aging? by jd.schmidt · · Score: 2

      Still don't forget most cell lines factually don't last that long, the successful ones made it at the cost of overwhelming numbers not making it. So for example when a batch of cells go bad (say cancer), it helps to have a whole other batch of cells, say in another person, to fall back on. This is great research none the less.

  2. I used to work there by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wrote a PL/I compiler for Tsukuba's IT department. Yes, that was a long time ago. The university stood alone among rice fields at the time; now it's the centerpiece of Tsukuba Science City, which researches a little of everything.

  3. epigenetics by phantomfive · · Score: 5, Interesting
    The scientists compared cells from 80-97 year olds, and kids under age 12. From the article:

    As expected, the older cells had reduced cellular respiration, but the older cells did not show more DNA damage than those from children. This discovery led the team to propose that the reduced cellular function is tied to epigenetic regulation,

    So it seems like the aging process of reduced cellular respiration comes from gene expression, that is, which genes are active, rather than their inability to perform.

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    1. Re:epigenetics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Can you break this down for me sesame street style? 31 year old alcoholic idiot here...

    2. Re:epigenetics by phantomfive · · Score: 5, Informative

      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."
    3. Re:epigenetics by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 4, Funny

      Can you break this down for me sesame street style? 31 year old alcoholic idiot here...

      If we lived too long, evolution to adapt to the changing environment would be impacted.
      We evolved mechanisms to kill us off in a timely manner so we don't compete with our better adapted children too much.

      The processes of evolution aren't for your benefit. They're just things that get selected for for maximum propagation. This is bad. If we find the mechanism and can stop it, there will be some really old farts about, arguing about how their Cherry M keyboards are superior to the direct brain interface.

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    4. Re:epigenetics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      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.

    5. Re:epigenetics by qpqp · · Score: 5, Funny

      if you were married to my wife

      Imagine some more advances like this and you could be married to your wife for so much longer...

    6. Re:epigenetics by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Why not try an all meat diet? Smarter people than you do: http://www.jbc.org/content/87/...

      200mg of liver every day for dinner is not my idea of enjoyable eating. Anyway, have you tried it? Has it worked out for you?

      That's not my idea of a fun diet. Liver is ok. It's excellent when if it's from a well fed goose. Escargot are awesome. It worked out well. Steaks, eggs, roasts, chicken livers cooked in milk, much bacon. It's not expensive since you don't eat as much. It's energy and nutrient dense. I lost a lot of weight, all blood markers improved dramatically. It's hard to keep it up because it's simply hard to do when you aren't cooking all your own meals. My workplace canteen has no non-carb food offerings. Rice, potatoes and wheat is cheap. So I go back on it hard core when I need to recover the ability to fit into the skinnier jeans. But I'm too lazy to cook and pack a lunch every day, year after year. You need to keep in mind that it's a high fat diet, not a high protein diet. No one can eat a predominantly protein diet. It's not possible. Mostly fat, some meat, no carbs.

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    7. Re:epigenetics by delt0r · · Score: 4, Insightful

      We are already post evolution. Now we are getting up to re engineering! And before you start of with the "billions of years of evolution optimal mother nature" crap. Life is clearly *not* designed and could do with a bit of a intelligent designer if you ask me. there is always a better way, and just trying random things is not the best way to find it.

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    8. Re:epigenetics by rednip · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You won't 'live forever', you just won't die of old age.

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    9. Re:epigenetics by Richard+Kirk · · Score: 2

      Yay! LIke! This is just what science reporting ought to be like. This won't get people thinking that 80-year old Japanese people are turning into 12-year-olds like the original article might. Here's my 2p's worth...

      4) These scientists found a way to 'deactivate' the aging genes.

      This is not necessarily a good thing to do. My mum (which is currently 95) has blood cancer. She disliked chemotherapy, and would have refused a second round if it. However, the aging process also slowed her cancer development to a crawl, so she's still around and no further treatment is likely.

      This figures. Evolution may not be fast, but it can seem to be very clever. The genes are probably helping us, though it may not feel like it at the time.

    10. Re:epigenetics by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · · Score: 2

      Even if this doesn't extend life but makes it so that it is good up until the end I would be all for it. Who wants to be shitting themselves unable to walk for the last few years.

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      Time to offend someone
  4. Overly optimistic article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It's certainly possible that, as a person gets older, epigenetic regulation of (nuclear encoded) mitochondrial genes can get messed up in a way that impairs mitochondrial function.

    But lots of things get messed up as a person gets older. Obviously a person accumulates a lot of damage that never gets repaired - e.g. because the repair mechanisms that would be needed don't even exist. But a person's cells are also on this amazing developmental program that takes a person from a single cell to full adult. While much of this program shuts down once a person reaches adulthood, there are almost certainly parts of this developmental pathway that continue to operate at a low level - slowly causing changes that over time increasingly make a person less healthy.

    Bottom line, there ain't no silver bullet on aging. Eventually it will be possible to design a new species that looks and acts human but that has the necessary repair mechanisms and developmental programs to be able to live indefinitely. And humanity may then choose to (voluntarily) go extinct allowing themselves to replaced by this new species. But any such species would be vastly different genetically than modern humans. Living forever is fundamentally and pervasively incompatible with our genetics.

    1. Re:Overly optimistic article by Pentium100 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Would it not be possible to repair the genes? If DNA gets messed up, why not keep a backup with multiple copies and (important) checksums to refresh the copies stored in the cells once in a while so it does not become too corrupt? The DNA is a few gigabytes IIRC, easily stored in a small chip.

      Now, currently I do not know of a way to actually repair the DNA in cells, but maybe at some time in the future some smart people figure this out...

    2. Re:Overly optimistic article by sjames · · Score: 3, Informative

      That's what adult stem cells are for.

  5. Re:The next illegal drug by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'd certainly hope so. You know how easy it is to score LSD and heroin.

  6. Re:Oh man by pushing-robot · · Score: 2

    If you're reading this you likely are in the top 1% globally. Yes, you could redefine it as the top 0.1%, or 0.01%, or 0.001%, or 0.0001%, but in my experience wherever you go on the curve people have similar vices, virtues, motivations and goals. Richer people get more help and own better toys—that's about it.

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  7. Re: Oh man by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    And then everyone dies after someone contracts a disease from a dirty telephone.

  8. Hurry up!!! by linuxguy · · Score: 5, Funny

    I am 43 and starting to feel the effects of aging. I need this stuff pronto!

  9. Re:Oh man by sjames · · Score: 2

    If the 1% in America would quit shitting all over everyone, the global 99% would have a chance to catch up.

  10. Re:Achieving immortalty may be the death of us. by greatpatton · · Score: 2

    This in no way immortality. Does it save you from dying of accident? Cure cancer? etc. However this kind of research may help you to live a better life at the old age, stay active and enjoy life.

  11. Re:I'm glad Google's reseachers didn't discover th by delt0r · · Score: 4, Funny

    I hope it gets patented. Properly. As in it can easily be replicated from the patent. They can sue me afterwards for patent infringement if they like, I'll have time.

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  12. Re:Collapse by delt0r · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why does this shit get spewed forth every fucking time. By that logic we should never treat anyone for anything. After all artificially long life spans are clearly evil and will cause the downfall of all that is good. Just like comics, pron, video game, cell phones, self driving cars, robotics, AI... in fact crawl back the your cave while you still can.

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  13. Re:Telomeres? by delt0r · · Score: 2

    Aging is widely accepted to be multifaceted. telomeres, dna damage, epigenetics, build up of plagues and shit. there is considered to be about 7 major things, and its not really considered an exhaustive list.

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  14. Re:Oh man by TheRaven64 · · Score: 2

    Top 10% probably. Take a look at a global rich list calculator. You can live very comfortably in a western country with 9% of the world's population being richer than you. If you're in some parts of central or eastern Europe, or a few parts of south-east Asia then you may be near the bottom of the top 20% and still living very comfortably. The '1%' that people talk about in the USA are well in the top 0.1% globally, but 'the 1%' makes a better soundbite than 'the 0.1%'.

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  15. Re:Collapse by rednip · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Actually, without any 'enforcement' at all, the average woman in the U.S has a fertility rate of 1.6, which is actually less than the replacement rate need for a stable population even if we eliminate old age. If it wasn't for immigration we'd be losing population. Virtually all 'advanced economies' are the same.

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  16. Re:Collapse by Nidi62 · · Score: 2

    Immortality would realistically cause the collapse of human civilization. Massive cullings would have to be undertaken. Riots, revolts, revolutions would all ensue. Economies would destabilize as the retirement system would lose all meaning. Jobs would never be vacated.

    Seriously. If there is anything that might have wiped out all other intelligent species in the galaxy, it's the scientific achievement of immortality.

    Or it will jumpstart human exploration and settlement of the universe. If a person can comfortably and productively live for centuries then it will be much easier for us to send manned missions to the rest of the planets in our solar system as well as enable us to explore outside our solar system. Who needs ftl travel when you can live 500-1000 years?

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  17. Re:Not if they think they can get more work out of by GLMDesigns · · Score: 2

    This is one of the many reasons SS is a stupid concept. There shouldn't "age of retirement" that's set in stone. If we were a rational society we would have raised the "age of retirement" to 68 in the 1970s and 70 in the 1990s and we would now be talking about when to bring it to 72.

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  18. Pass! by AndyKron · · Score: 2

    Oh boy! A chance to work 100 years instead on "only" 70, and watch the Earth drown in human flesh!!! Fuck that shit...

  19. Re: Oh man by blue9steel · · Score: 2

    What good is all their money and power when there are no proles to do their dirty work? It would mean they'd have to do it.

    Hence the large investments in robotics and AI research.

  20. Re:Oh man by shaitand · · Score: 2

    It also neglects to consider the difference between net and gross. Almost every other country provides healthcare and education while the US has the highest costs for comparable care and generally inferior education. If you subtract healthcare and education costs from what we have left after taxes in the US most Europeans are probably ahead.