The
excitement was spurred by three published studies earlier this year that showed
that components of blood from young mice were able to repair damage and improve
the function of the muscles and brains of older mice.
In
some cases, a single protein found circulating in the blood is sufficient to
restore muscle and improve brain activity.
"We
started this work more than a decade ago, with a kind of crazy hypothesis that
there might be some thing in the blood that influences tissue repair with
age" said Amy Wagers, a researcher at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute who
is coauthor on two of the three new works.
Previously,
upon screening the blood of young and old mice, Wagers had found that older
mice had less of a protein growth factor called GCF11, which is also found in
human blood.
Wagers
and research team then found that an injection of the protein into older mice
had similar beneficial effects on the heart as it had on the heart of younger
mice.
In a new study published in the journal Science, Wagers and team
showed that it also has restorative effects on muscles in mice.
In a second report, Wagers and her colleagues showed that the protein has
restorative effects on the brains of older mice as well.
"The
most exciting aspect of the set of papers is that there is a common signal
talking to the brain, heart and skeletal muscles." Said Wagers. "The
same signals is talking to at least three organs and multiple cells types
within each organ."
A
separate recent study from scientists of Stanford University showed that young
blood changes older mice's behavior and neural activity. The team saw
improvements in learning and memory and a strengthening of connections between
neurons in the hippocampus, a structure important to memory that deteriorates
with age, even more so with diseases such as Alzheimer's.
Now
in the first clinical trial that includes 18 middle-aged and older Alzheimer's
patients, patients are being given injections of blood plasma provided by young
adults to see if it can help fight dementia.
Results are expected next year.
News
source: Science, AAAs, MIT Technology Review, theguardian
Dr.
Shima Naghavi, Director of International Affairs