'Super mouse' runs fast, lives long ...

Faster, longer life and longer reproduction time are the salient features of the newly created ' super mouse ' in the US.

The research team at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, has released genetically modified mice that are able to run twice as fast as normal mice.This rat species was created to evaluate the role of biochemistry in the body's metabolic processes and to help broaden the understanding of human health and disability.

This genetically modified mouse is capable of running up to 5 - 6 km at 20 meters per minute on a treadmill for 6 hours.

These transgenic mice run fast, eat well, live longer and have a longer reproductive period.(Photo: BBC)

Professor Richard Hanson, the author of this " super rat " project, said : 'They mainly use fatty acids to create energy and produce very little lactic acid. The muscles of these mice have more mitochondria. Mitochondria are small "machines" in cells that produce energy for the body. For some reason, the amount of mitochondria in the rat's body changes genes 10 times higher than the amount in normal mice '.

According to the team, ' super mice ' also have overexpression of genes that act on the enzyme phosphoenolypyruvate carboxykinases (PEPCK-C). The normal expression of this enzyme takes place in the liver, in the production of glucose for the body.

Experts found that the transgenic mouse was twice as healthy as a normal mouse . And even more remarkable is that they can still give birth when they are 3 years old - compared to humans, it is the same as an 80-year-old woman who still has fertility!

Details of the creation of the ' super rat ' have been published in the Biological Chemistry magazine of the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Vinh Tho