Wrinkles, grey hair, and niggling aches are an unavoidable part of getting older. But scientists now believe that the aging process can be reversed. Scientists at Cambridge University were able to successfully de-age human skin cells by 30 years in a recent trial.
Cells’ ability to operate properly deteriorates as they get older. As a result, people’s NDA blueprints begin to show indications of aging.
Researchers have employed regenerative biology to develop “induced” stem cells that produce fibroblasts, which produce collagen. It heals wounds and gives tissues shape and helps to de-age.
According to a study published in eLife, they were able to overcome the challenge of completely erasing cell identification. There were able to do it by using the Nobel Prize-winning technique.
Revolutionizing regenerative medicine
“Our understanding of aging on a molecular level has progressed over the last decade, giving rise to techniques that allow researchers to measure age-related biological changes in human cells. We were able to apply this to our experiment to determine the extent of reprogramming our new method achieved,” said Dr. Diljeet, a postdoctoral researcher at the Babraham Institute, who conducted the trial.
According to Professor Wolf Reik, who was also a part of the trial, “This work has very exciting implications. Eventually, we may be able to identify genes that rejuvenate without reprogramming, and specifically target those to reduce the effects of aging. This approach holds promise for valuable discoveries that could open up an amazing therapeutic horizon.”
“Our results represent a big step forward in our understanding of cell reprogramming. We have proved that cells can be rejuvenated without losing their function and that rejuvenation looks to restore some function to old cells. The fact that we also saw a reverse of aging indicators in genes associated with diseases is particularly promising for the future of this work,” Diljeet said.
The discovery could likewise revolutionize regenerative medicine. Scientists have never been able to reproduce conditions that allow stem cells to re-differentiate.
In 2007, Shinya Yamanaka became the first scientist to successfully change normal cells into any cell type. Reprogramming stem cells using dour crucial molecules called Yamanaka factors usually takes roughly 50 days.