Chinese scientists study injecting young blood to help old mice live longer

Scientists discovered that putting young blood into old mice can rejuvenate adult stem cells and surrounding somatic cells.

Experts at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have discovered a "vampire" technique whereby young blood injected into old mice can help them live longer. The new study was published in the journal Cell Stem Cell on May 24.

Injecting young blood into old mice can help them live longer.

The team found that exposure to aged blood can accelerate the aging of many types of cells and organs in young mice, while pumping young blood into old mice can rejuvenate adult stem cells. wall and surrounding somatic cells. They further determined that HSPC cells - the type of stem cells that give rise to other blood and immune cells - were among the most sensitive to young blood.

"Most of the previous relevant studies have only demonstrated the phenomenon of rejuvenation without revealing enough about the essential mechanisms," said Ma Shuai, lead author of the study, an expert at the Institute of Zoology and the Institute of Genetics The Beijing School of Communication of the CAS, said. The new study aims to find scientific evidence and answer the question of how young blood triggers a response in old cells, Ma said.

Scientists have been interested in the anti-aging properties of young blood since at least the late 1950s, when the first study on the subject was published. By the early 2000s, this issue was attracting more and more attention.

To understand the aging process, the scientists developed a technique called Heterochronic parabiosis, in which a young mouse and an old mouse share a circulatory system so that researchers can assess it. response of tissues and organs at the systemic level. In 2005, scientists at Stanford University (USA) found signs of rejuvenation in the muscles and liver of old mice after supplementing them with young blood for a month.

In the new study, the Chinese team isolated and compared more than 164,000 single cells in seven organs over five years to determine the mechanism by which Heterochronic parabiosis affects aging and rejuvenation.

The rejuvenating effects in aged mice, they say, stem from the activation of old HSPCs rather than from migration of young HSPCs into the bone marrow. "Our study constitutes a resource that can be exploited to advance the general understanding of the factors involved in aging and how to target them to reduce aging," the team said.

The new study was carried out on mice, but many scientists and businesses are also interested in the potential for human rejuvenation. Ambrosia, the US-based startup, once suggested infusions of plasma from young donors - 1.5 liters each and injected over two days. This method was criticized by the US Food and Drug Administration as "not safe or effective" in 2019.