Posted on 11/22/2011 4:44:40 PM PST by neverdem
Until recently, few people gave much thought to senescent cells. They are cells that linger in the body even after they have lost the ability to divide.
But on Nov. 2, in what could be a landmark experiment in the study of aging, researchers at the Mayo Clinic reported that if you purge the body of its senescent cells, the tissues remain youthful and vigorous.
The experiment was just in mice, and it cleared the cells with a genetic technique that cannot be applied to people. Like all critical experiments, it needs to be repeated in other labs before it can be accepted with confidence.
But the startling result is plausible because it ties together an emerging body of knowledge about senescent cells. And it raises the possibility that attacks on the cells might postpone the diseases of aging and let people live out more of their life span in good health.
Senescent cells were discovered 50 years ago in a classic experiment by the biologist Leonard Hayflick. He found that human cells cultured in glassware do not multiply indefinitely, as was then assumed, but can divide only 50 or so times before lapsing into senescence...
--snip--
Senescence is induced in most cells by the activation of two genes, known as p53 and p16-INK4a, that are the guardians and enforcers of proper cell division. When they detect any damage in the cell’s controls, they force it into either senescence or death.
The role of p16-INK4a is to block the cell from dividing. The Mayo team genetically engineered a strain of mice in which whenever a cell became senescent by switching on its p16-INK4a gene, it also primed a cell suicide device. The Mayo team used a special drug to activate this device and clear the mice of all their senescent...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Fascinating.
I have no science background but the article was well written and fairly easy for me to understand.
I’m gonna have to chase this further ! Just reviewed my quarterly blood test results with my GP and he - well, really his computer program - highlighted some “off par” results concerning my blood marrow. Hmmm!!!! >PS
Good luck.
Info is too late for me but might be good for the kids and grandkids.
bkmk
“Info is too late for me but might be good for the kids and grandkids.”
I know how you feel - I wonder if the cure for aging will be found - when I’m 80.
Heck, it’s too late now.
Are you kidding? Mouse or not, there will be clinics offering this Fountain of Youth within a year.
bttt
It’s great being lab rat:
1. Free food
2. Lots of breeding partners
3. Comfy bed
4. No cats
5. Cured of every disease
Just one problem.....getting dissected....just had to be a catch. Dohhhh!!!!
Purging the senescent cells might buy time, but not immortality, because the teleomeres shorten after multiple divisions. Hayflick found that limit, and found that only cancerous cells bypassed the limit on the number of divisions, becoming immortal if in vitro, or living until they killed the hose if in vivo.
It's all just biochemistry.
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