Middle-aged mice aging slows and health improves with newborn mice brain stem cells

Record ID: 905732

  • Title: Middle-aged mice aging slows and health improves with newborn mice brain stem cells
  • Date: 8th August 2017
  • Summary: BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, UNITED STATES (FILE - NOVEMBER 17, 2016) (REUTERS) (NOT PART OF ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE STUDY) RESEARCHER HOLDING MOUSE BY ITS TAIL
  • Embargoed: 22nd August 2017 21:14
  • Keywords: Dongsheng Cai mice hypothalamus stem cells young mice middle-aged mice Albert Einstein College of Medicine aging
  • Location: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK + BALTIMORE, MARYLAND + SAN FRANCISCO + LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES / TEL AVIV, ISRAEL
  • City: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK + BALTIMORE, MARYLAND + SAN FRANCISCO + LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES / TEL AVIV, ISRAEL
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Life Sciences,Science
  • Reuters ID: LVA0036TAOTAZ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: ALL VIDEO OF MICE IS FILE FOOTAGE AS ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE DOES NOT PERMIT FILMING OF ITS ANIMALS
    Injecting middle-aged mice with the hypothalamus stem cells of newborn mice prolonged the lifespan of middle-aged mice by about 10 to 15 percent, researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine discovered.
    "When we injected the hypothalamus stem cells, which were derived from young mice, we injected them to the middle-aged mice and that was, in fact, to slow down aging. So the mouse aged slowly and they also increased their lifespan, which is longevity," said Dr. Dongsheng Cai, professor of molecular pharmacology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Cai is the senior author of a recently published study: "Hypothalamic stem cells control ageing speed partly through exosomal miRNAs."
    Cai says his team's findings are remarkable because it helps scientists understand how we age and how much of aging is controlled by the hypothalamus.
    "It takes care of a lot of basic functions of life, such as growth, development, reproduction, sleep, eating, energy, balance, body temperature, blood pressure," Cai said. "All these basic fundamental aspects of life are controlled by the hypothalamus. So it's really in a leadership position. So when the normal functions of the hypothalamus are maintained, so this collection of basic aspects of life, physiology, are maintained, which are more or less reflecting youth, so when hypothalamus function is in decline, particularly the loss of hypothalamus stem cells, and this protection against the aging development is lost, it eventually leads to aging."
    After middle-aged mice were injected with the hypothalamus stem cells from the newborn mice, the middle-aged mice had better muscle function and less age-related impairments than mice who were not treated.
    "Aging leads to inflammatory changes in the hypothalamus," Cai said. "This hypothalamus inflammation is very harmful for stem cells. Stem cells couldn't survive well under this aging associated hypothalamus inflammation. But compared to older mice, middle-aged mice are less severe in terms of hypothalamus inflammation. So when we injected cells during the middle ages, the cells had a better chance to survive."
    Looking forward, Cai says his study could help humans too.
    "I think humans can function better during a later stage of aging, say eighties, nineties, even hundreds, centenarians. So they could have better functions and their life quality could be better, more improved."
    Cai says his study focuses on health as opposed to living longer and his team will continue exploring expanding the health span in mice.
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