HomeAnimalsMice got human blood from teenagers and became younger.
Mice got human blood from teenagers and became younger.
More and more studies show the dramatic effects of blood plasma from young people given to both older humans and animals. The latest study shows that old mice showed signs of rejuvenation after transfusions with human blood.
The old mice seemed to undergo rejuvenation after transfusions of blood from human teenagers. Credit: Creative Commons
A team of researchers fromthe pharmaceutical companyAlkahestinCaliforniahavetakenbloodsamples froma group of18-year-old human test subjectsandinjectedtheminto12months oldmice. That age in mouse terms is about the same as 50 year old human body. The results are exciting and seem to confirm the findings of several other recent studies into rejuvenation.
The micereceivedinjectionsofbloodplasmatwice a weekfor three weeks. The researchers then comparedthemice that got infusions ofteenagebloodwithcontrol groupsof miceat3and12monthsrespectively.
The comparisonshowed that physically, the elderlymicesuddenlybehavedlike youngrodents when they had received the transfusions for a couple of weeks. Their memory also seemed to improve to match the level of much younger mice.
Scientists believe thatthe rejuvenation is due to differencesin theproteinsin blood plasma from young and old bodies.Young blood plasmacontainssomeproteins,whichdisappearswith ageand seem to be replaced bydestructivemolecules.
As for the exact nature of these proteins, the researchers won’t publish those details yet. But they do say that the proteins clearly have a negative effect on both the body and the brain. When untreated older mouse brains were dissected and compared to the treated ones, the results showed that the treated brains had greater amounts of newly formed neurons than the older brains.
“We have actually, for the first time,discovered thatthere arehundredsofproteins thatchange withage,” saysneurologistKarolyNikolichtoCBS. The studywaspresented at theannual meeting ofthe Society forNeurosciences,but has not yet been publishedorpeer-reviewed.However,previousstudieshaveshownsimilar results. The researcherswillexamine ifyoungbloodplasmacando the same forolder peopleandthus helpin the fight againstAlzheimer’sDisease.
More details can be read here, in the journal Nature