Posted on 07/26/2017 11:30:31 AM PDT by Red Badger
THE brain cells that control ageing have been discovered offering the hope of people living longer
Scientists have found that stem cells in the brain's hypothalamus govern how fast ageing occurs in the body.
The discovery, made in mice, could lead to new strategies for warding off age-related diseases and extending lifespan, they claim.
The hypothalamus was known to regulate important processes including growth, development, reproduction and metabolism.
In 2013, researchers made the surprising finding that it also regulates ageing throughout the body.
Now, the same scientists have now pinpointed a tiny population of adult neural stem cells, known to be responsible for forming new brain neurons, that control ageing.
Study senior author Professor Dongsheng Cai, of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the US, said: "Our research shows that the number of hypothalamic neural stem cells naturally declines over the life of the animal, and this decline accelerates ageing.
"But we also found that the effects of this loss are not irreversible. By replenishing these stem cells or the molecules they produce, it's possible to slow and even reverse various aspects of aging throughout the body."
In studying whether stem cells in the hypothalamus held the key to ageing, the researchers first looked at the fate of those cells as healthy mice got older.
The number of the cells began to diminish when the animals reached about 10 months, which is several months before the usual signs of ageing start appearing.
Prof Cai said: "By old age - about two years of age in mice - most of those cells were gone."
The researchers next wanted to learn whether this progressive loss of stem cells was actually causing ageing and was not just associated with it.
They observed what happened when they selectively disrupted the hypothalamic stem cells in middle-aged mice.
Prof Cai said: "This disruption greatly accelerated aging compared with control mice, and those animals with disrupted stem cells died earlier than normal."
To discover if adding stem cells to the hypothalamus counteract ageing, the researchers injected hypothalamic stem cells into the brains of middle-aged mice whose stem cells had been destroyed as well as into the brains of normal old mice.
In both groups of animals, the treatment slowed or reversed various measures of aging.
Dr. Cai and his colleagues found that the hypothalamic stem cells appear to exert their anti-ageing effects by releasing molecules called microRNAs (miRNAs).
They are not involved in protein synthesis but instead play key roles in regulating gene expression.
The miRNAs are packaged inside tiny particles called exosomes, which hypothalamic stem cells release into the cerebrospinal fluid of mice.
The researchers extracted miRNA-containing exosomes from hypothalamic stem cells and injected them into the cerebrospinal fluid of two groups of mice - middle-aged mice whose hypothalamic stem cells had been destroyed and normal middle-aged mice.
The treatment "significantly slowed" ageing in both groups of animals as measured by tissue analysis and behavioural testing that involved assessing changes in the animals' muscle endurance, coordination, social behavior and cognitive ability.
Now the researchers are trying to identify the particular populations of miRNAs and perhaps other factors secreted by the stem cells that are responsible for the anti-ageing effects - a first step toward possibly slowing the ageing process and treating age-related diseases.
The ageing study was published online by the journal Nature.
Oh!
I would have caught that but I also killed off my “understanding medical articles” cells too.
Have they discovered any to do with spelling?
Probably another reason they won’t close Planned Parenthood.....fresh supply of babies stem cells?
Good afternoon.
So what leafy vegetables do we eat to improve the efficiency of the hypothalamus?
5.56mm
Somedays, I have that feeling.
bkmk
Aging is normal. Interfering with what is natural will fail.
Cr@p.. you mean we have to put up with BoToxNaN and DOA Arkancide longer?!
This is not good :/
I’m already trying to figure out how not to run out of money before I run out of life!
What is more, I’m just passin’ through on my way to what I surely do hope is a much better place.
I always thought it was three score and 10 with the rest being gravy.
What? And miss all those remedy for limp dingus commercials and the deluge of Type II Diabetes drug commercials after the news?
“Doc, I wants me some of that diabetes medicine with all the side effects even the ones leading to death.”
Most old men I have spoken to just before they died said they would easily give back the last five years.
What was that old song? Live fast, love hard, die young and leave a beautiful memory?
If it is Kale probably just about any tree will do.
My wife feeds me that stuff. If you cook it with enough bacon and put enough Louisiana Hot Sauce on it you can just barely eat enough of it to make a showing and satisfy her.
I really am not sure if she loves me and wants me to live well and longer or just wants to kill me.
How people got the idea that had anything to do with how long people could live is a puzzle.
#6 All right, brain. You dont like me and I dont like you, but lets just do this and I can get back to killing you with beer.
Homer Simpson
lol Yeah!
Me and you both!..................
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.