How to rejuvenate an aged thymus gland
The immune gland was regenerated live
Kirill Stasevich, Compulenta
The thymus gland (thymus) is considered the cradle of immune T cells: in it they mature, differentiate, and learn to recognize hostile substances in contact with other cells of the body. However, the thymus is known not so much for its role in immunity as for the fact that it disappears with age. Moreover, it begins to disappear already during puberty, and by old age this process is especially accelerated.
It is clear that this affects immunity: the weakening of immune protection in the elderly is associated with the degradation of the thymus gland.
Location of the thymus gland (thymus) in humans
But, as it turned out, the thymus can be restored – however, it has been possible to do this so far only on mice.
As usual, stem cells were involved, but they had to be properly activated so that they would compensate for age-related damage. To do this, Clare Blackburn and her colleagues from the University of Edinburgh (UK) stimulated the FOXN1 protein, which serves as a regulator of the activity of other genes. The activity of FOXN1 itself decreases greatly with age, so it's understandable why the researchers chose it.
The FOXN1 gene was stimulated in old mice, and as a result, as scientists report in Development, the thymus of mice, which was very tiny due to age, noticeably increased. And not just increased, but also began to produce more cells. That is, its function was also restored.
In other words, it was possible to force the organ to regenerate directly in a living organism!
So far, this is the only case of this kind, but who knows, it may be possible to restore other organs in the same way. On the other hand, all organs are different, and what happened with the thymus may not work, for example, with the liver. But in any case, the thymus is already a lot: the authors of the work believe that the same procedure can be performed with a person, which means that the immunity of older people can be strengthened simply by restoring their thymus gland.
But first we will have to clarify a few more important points. In particular, it is necessary to understand how functional the T-cells produced by the regenerated thymus are, and whether such regeneration really improves the protective properties of immunity.
Prepared based on the materials of the University of Edinburgh: Living organ regenerated for the first time.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru10.04.2014