young blood
Aging Research: Plasma Protein Revitalizes the Brain
Posted on by Dr. Francis Collins
For centuries, people have yearned for an elixir capable of restoring youth to their aging bodies and minds. It sounds like pure fantasy, but, in recent years, researchers have shown that the blood of young mice can exert a regenerative effect when transfused into older animals. Now, one of the NIH-funded teams that brought us those exciting findings has taken an early step toward extending them to humans.
In their latest work published in Nature, the researchers showed that blood plasma collected from the umbilical cords of newborn infants possesses some impressive rejuvenating effects [1]. When the human plasma was infused into the bloodstream of old mice, it produced marked improvements in learning and memory. Additional experiments traced many of those cognitive benefits to a specific protein called TIMP2—an unexpected discovery that could pave the way for the development of brain-boosting drugs to slow the effects of aging.
Can Something in Young Blood Give a Boost to Old Brains?
Posted on by Dr. Francis Collins
Infusing blood from younger creatures into older ones in hopes of halting—or even reversing—the aging process may sound like a macabre scene straight out of “Game of Thrones.” However, several scientific studies have shown that when older animals receive blood from younger counterparts, it improves the function of stem cells throughout the body, boosting tissue regeneration and healing. What’s not been clear is whether this activity can also rejuvenate the brain’s cognitive powers.
Let’s face it: aging is tough on the brain. The number of neural stem cells shrinks, producing fewer neurons; and many of the genes that promote brain development and neural connections become less active. To find out if young blood might hold some of the answers to this complex problem, two teams of NIH-funded researchers—one in Massachusetts and the other in California—recently turned to mice as a model system.
