Source: University of North Carolina School of Medicine
Posted: September 6, 2006
Summary:
Three separate studies confirm a gene that suppresses tumor cell growth also plays a key role in aging. Researchers found increasing concentration, or expression, of the gene p16INK4a in older cells; these aging cells worked poorly compared to young cells and remembered their “age” even when transferred from old mice to young mice. The cells of mice bred without the gene showed less sluggishness as the animals aged and continued to function in a manner more similar to cells from younger mice. Teams from the medical schools at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Michigan and Harvard University observed similar results in pancreatic islet cells and brain and blood stem cells.
Commentary: Hopefully this finding will lead to treatments of age-related diseases in humans that will result improved quality of life.
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