Recent studies have shown that young blood has a rejuvenating effect when injected into the body of an elderly person. An aging heart beats harder, muscles grow stronger, and thoughts sharper.
Many scientists are looking for young blood elements that can be captured or replicated and put into tablets.
But what if the best way to reap the benefits of young blood is simply to rejuvenate the blood-making system?
“The aging blood system is a vector for many proteins, cytokines, and cells, which has many negative consequences for the organism,” said Emmanuel Pasgue, Ph.D., director of the Columbia Stem Cell Initiative. Blood changes with age. “Someone whose blood system is He’s 40 He’s 70 may have longer, if not longer, healthy life expectancy.”
“A 70-year-old person with a 40-year blood system may live longer, if not longer, healthy life expectancy.”
Based on recent findings from Passegué’s lab, published in Nature Cell Biology, rejuvenating the blood of older people may now be within reach.
Passegué, along with graduate student Carl Mitchell, found that an anti-inflammatory drug already approved for use in rheumatoid arthritis can turn back time in mice and reverse some of the effects of age on the hematopoietic system. bottom.
“These results show that such strategies hold promise for maintaining healthier blood production in older adults,” Mitchell says.
rejuvenate blood stem cells
Researchers identified the drug only after comprehensively examining the stem cells that make all blood cells and the niche where they reside in the center of bones.
All blood cells in the body are made by a small number of stem cells in the bone marrow. Over time, these hematopoietic stem cells begin to change. Hematopoietic stem cells produce fewer red blood cells (leading to anemia), fewer immune cells (increasing risk of infection and hampering vaccination efforts), and problems maintaining genomic integrity. (which can lead to blood cancer).
In a paper published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine in 2021,(External link, opens in new window)Passegué and her team first tried to rejuvenate old hematopoietic stem cells in mice through exercise and a calorie-restricted diet, commonly thought to slow the aging process. Neither worked. Transplanting old stem cells into young bone marrow has also failed. Even young blood was ineffective in rejuvenating old blood stem cells.
Mitchell and Passegué next took a closer look at the stem cell environment, the bone marrow. “Blood stem cells live in a niche.
With techniques developed in the Passegué lab that allow for an in-depth examination of the bone marrow environment, researchers have discovered that the aging niche is exacerbated and overwhelmed by inflammation, leading to blood stem cell dysfunction.
IL-1B, one of the inflammatory signals released from the damaged bone marrow niche, is critical in promoting these hallmarks of aging, and blocking it with the drug anakinra resulted in significantly younger and healthier blood stem cells. returned to good condition.
When IL-1B was prevented from exerting its inflammatory effects throughout the life of the animal, it produced even more youthful effects on both the niche and blood system.
Researchers are now trying to find out whether the same process is activated in humans and whether rejuvenating the stem cell niche early in life, middle age, would be a more effective strategy. .
Meanwhile, “treating older patients with anti-inflammatory drugs that inhibit IL-1B function should help maintain healthier blood production,” said Passegué, a finding that could lead to clinical trials. I hope that
Blocking IL-IB with the drug anakinra reverted blood stem cells to a significantly younger and healthier state.
“We know that bone tissue starts deteriorating in your 50s. What happens in middle age? Why do niches fail in the first place?” Passeghe says. “Only with a deep understanding of the molecule can we identify approaches that truly slow aging.”
In many societies, life expectancy has increased by more than 30 years in the last 100 years. Linda Freed, M.D., M.P.H., Dean of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, said: Butler Columbia Center for Aging. “This must include research to understand the mechanisms of normal aging and how to fully exploit the enormous opportunity for healthy longevity for all.”
Blocking IL-IB with the drug anakinra reverted blood stem cells to a significantly younger and healthier state.
Original: Does revitalizing old blood slow down aging?
Than: Columbia University Irving Medical Center | Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
