[ExI] Young Blood

[Stefano Vaj]

http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/38464/?nlid=nldly&nld=2011-09-01

"A paper published today in *Nature* <http://www.nature.com/> finds that
when younger mice are exposed to the blood of older mice, their brain cells
behave more like those found in aging brains, and vice versa. The
researchers who carried out the work also uncovered chemical signals in aged
blood that can dampen the growth of new brain cells, suggesting that the
decline in brain function with age could be caused in part by blood-borne
factors rather than an intrinsic failure of brain cells.

To arrive at the discovery, the researchers studied pairs of old and young
mice that were literally joined at the hip. They used a technique called
parabiosis, in which two mice are surgically joined together along the
flank, which causes them to develop a shared circulatory system. The
technique has been used to study the development of the blood system, and
more recently has been used to investigate the effects of age by joining old
and young mice."

I wonder whether the experiment has been replicated on humans. But hey,
going around with a Siamese, albeit younger, twin joint at the hip might be
unconfortable on occasions, perhaps we should better stick to transfusions.
:-)

-- 
Stefano Vaj
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