Research May Point to Ways to Reverse Some Effects of Human Aging

by Isabella Dutta
May 10, 2014

The elusive elixir of everlasting youth continues to intrigue and two research teams have published results that may point ways in which we could reverse some of the effects of human aging.

In one study, researchers at Stanford University and the University of California, San Francisco, discovered that blood transfusions from young mice to old mice reversed cognitive effects of aging, improving memory and learning ability in the older mice.

Harvard University researchers meanwhile found that exposing old mice to a protein naturally present in high levels in the blood of young mice, and crucially also in the blood of young people, improved the brain and exercise capability in the old mice. An earlier study on the same protein linked injections of the protein to a reversal of the effects of aging on the heart.

Though much more work is needed before the findings can be applied to human aging, the results are certainly compelling and might well shine some light on the aging process.

Source: Wall Street Journal
May 4th, 2014