Is blood plasma the elixir of youth?

Old mice were rejuvenated with injections of adolescent blood

Sergey Vasiliev, Naked Science

Scientists injected elderly mice with blood plasma preparations obtained from young people and adolescents. In animals, many age-related processes slowed down, memory, thinking improved, and activity increased.

Alkahest researchers reported on rather controversial experiments from an ethical point of view at the annual congress of the American Society of Neuroscience, which recently opened in California. According to The New Scientist (Blood from human teens rejuvenates body and brains of old mice), the announcement was made by Sakura Minami. She said, in particular, that blood samples were obtained from a group of healthy volunteers of both sexes with an average age of 18 years.

After removing the cells from it, the scientists left only plasma – a complex cocktail of molecules dissolved in water, including hundreds of different proteins. Such drugs were injected into 12-month-old mice, which can be conditionally compared with the 50th anniversary in humans. At this age, they have the first obvious signs of aging, reduced mobility and effectiveness in memory tests. The animals received injections twice a week, for three weeks. After this period, the scientists tested the mice, comparing their abilities with those demonstrated by control mice of the same age, as well as young (three months old), who did not receive injections.

According to Minami, experimental animals mastered open space (quite "scary" for mice who prefer burrows and closed spaces) no less actively than young ones. Their performance in memory and spatial orientation tests improved: they remembered the path in the "Barnes maze" much better than the mice of the control group.

The scientists also examined the brain preparations of mice receiving plasma. They showed that under the influence of its "young" proteins, neurogenesis began in the hippocampus, the appearance of new neurons, which may explain the improvement in memory and other functions. "Young plasma can enhance neurogenesis," Minami said. Now the group is engaged in a detailed search among hundreds of plasma proteins – those of them that may be responsible for the "rejuvenating" effect. Perhaps soon they will become the basis of promising drugs that slow down aging.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  17.11.2016