Altered Mouse Turns 136 in Human Years

AP Science via Yahoo ^ | April 12, 2004 | Anon AP Science Stringer

[Pharmboy]

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - A dwarf mouse named Yoda has celebrated his fourth birthday, making him the oldest of his kind and far beyond 100 in human years, the University of Michigan Medical School says.

Yoda owes his longevity to genetic modifications that affected his pituitary and thyroid glands and reduced insulin production — and which left him a third smaller than an average mouse and very sensitive to cold.

On the other hand, at the human equivalent of about 136 years, Yoda is still mobile, sexually active and "looking good," said Dr. Richard A. Miller, associate director of research at the school's geriatrics center.

Yoda lives in a carefully maintained lab with roughly 100 other male geriatric mice being used for a lifespan study. An average lab mouse lives slightly more than two years.

Yoda's cage mate, Princess Leia, is a much larger female who uses her body warmth to keep the dwarf mouse from freezing to death.

Researchers are studying the genetic mutants to determine how altered hormone levels can slow the aging process, with the hope of figuring out which methods, if any, eventually could be applied to humans.

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[MattAMiller]

We shall dance upon their oversized graves.

[Caipirabob]

They forgot the part where the mouse stood up, danced around and cussed out Michael Eisner...

[myheroesareDeadandRegistered]

KnutCase,

Lemme ask something. What bad habits have you partaken of your whole life?

I want to know what I can get away with and, one day, be 87 and viagraless, too. :)

[Triple Word Score]

There are people who LIVE for their lawns, aren't there! I have three people on my street who will water when it's raining. They mow twice a week and those brown spots worry them more than politics. They get down on their knees to get the whole root while digging up weeds we sane people spray or ignore.

Gotta love them. They cut the grass so short the summer sun destroys it in August no matter what they do, even if they put on more water than falls in the whole Amazon basin in a decade--and then ours looks better than theirs and it makes them crazy. :-) Once a year, the lazy triumph and it's a GOOD moment.