Scientists at Harvard University have recently reported that blood from young mice can rejuvenate ageing mice. Blood transfusions not only reversed the memory impairment that seems to inevitably appear with age, but also improved the learning abilities of ageing mice.
The mysterious ‘youth substance’ in young blood was found to be a protein called GDF11.
Injecting older mice with pure GDF11 confirmed the extraordinary neurological findings and also produced an increase in muscular strength and exercise capacity.
Interest in ‘young blood’ has been around for a while, historically (in Transylvania) as well as in the research laboratories of Harvard.
So this GDF11 isn’t the new kid on the block – research into it has been going on for at least 10 years.
What’s new is its universal regenerative power.
Just last year – also at Harvard – studies showed that exposing old mice to blood from young mice continuously for 4 weeks transformed the ageing hearts into sprightly young ones.
Human trials are in the pipeline. I always wanted to be a guinea pig – sign me up please!
References:
Restoring Systemic GDF11 Levels Reverses Age-Related Dysfunction in Mouse Skeletal Muscle.
Sinha M1, Jang YC, Oh J, Khong D, Wu EY, Manohar R, Miller C, Regalado SG, Loffredo FS, Pancoast JR, Hirshman MF, Lebowitz J, Shadrach JL, Cerletti M,Kim MJ, Serwold T, Goodyear LJ, Rosner B, Lee RT, Wagers AJ.
Harvard Stem Cell Institute and Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Science. 2014 May 5. [Epub ahead of print]
Vascular and Neurogenic Rejuvenation of the Aging Mouse Brain by Young Systemic Factors.
Katsimpardi L1, Litterman NK, Schein PA, Miller CM, Loffredo FS, Wojtkiewicz GR, Chen JW, Lee RT, Wagers AJ, Rubin LL.
Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Science. 2014 May 5. [Epub ahead of print]
Growth differentiation factor 11 is a circulating factor that reverses age-related cardiac hypertrophy.
Loffredo FS1, Steinhauser ML, Jay SM, Gannon J, Pancoast JR, Yalamanchi P, Sinha M, Dall’Osso C, Khong D, Shadrach JL, Miller CM, Singer BS, Stewart A, Psychogios N, Gerszten RE, Hartigan AJ, Kim MJ, Serwold T, Wagers AJ, Lee RT.
Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Cell. 2013 May 9;153(4):828-39. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2013.04.015.
Autoregulation of neurogenesis by GDF11.
Wu HH1, Ivkovic S, Murray RC, Jaramillo S, Lyons KM, Johnson JE, Calof AL.
Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology and The Developmental Biology Center, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA.
Neuron. 2003 Jan 23;37(2):197-207.