The Fountain of Youth Discovered:
GM Mice Regenerate Faster and Grow
Back Body Parts + Immortal Human Cells Discovered by Scientists
by Alexander Light
Mice that had been genetically engineered to develop
tumours failed to do so. Instead, the animals grew up to be huge and very hairy. And when the tips of the pups’
toes were clipped off in a routine tagging procedure, they often grew back.
What was different about these mice was that they carried a protein, Lin28a, which is generally produced only in developing embryos. Lin28a has already garnered attention for its involvement in the functioning of stem cells and in cancer.
What was different about these mice was that they carried a protein, Lin28a, which is generally produced only in developing embryos. Lin28a has already garnered attention for its involvement in the functioning of stem cells and in cancer.
A study published today in Cell1 now shows that this protein can improve tissue repair — even in adults. In mice genetically modified to produce the protein throughout their lives, the animals’ hair grew faster than normal and puncture wounds in their ears healed almost completely.
“We were just so shocked that such a small change in this gene could have profound effects on a complex regenerating tissue,” says Hao Zhu, a cell biologist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and an author on the study.
Resetting cells using embryonic genes has been seen before, most prominently in the creation of cells known as induced pluripotent stem cells, which acquire an embryonic-like state after a suite of genes is activated. But the latest study reveals that such de-ageing changes can be made not just in cultured cells, but in developed tissues within an organism.
It suggests that it might be possible to make older tissues behave more like young ones, which are much better at repairing damage. In mammalian fetuses, for example, even deep wounds can heal without scarring.
“Your body knows what age it is, and genes regulate that knowledge,” says Zhu. “There are genetic regulators that dictate that. We don't know what all of them are, but I think Lin28a is one of them.”
Selective action
Not everything that the researchers tested gained extra healing power with Lin28a, however. Heart regeneration, for example, was not boosted . And the tips of clipped toes did not grow back once the mice had reached young adulthood. But accelerated regrowth of hair and of the cartilage and connective tissue in the ear continued.
“The fact that it doesn't work sometimes is even more interesting because it raises the question why,” says Daniel Goldman at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, who has studied the role of Lin28 in regenerating retinas in zebrafish. He suspects that some tissues, like the heart, may have mechanisms that resist resetting.
What is particularly intriguing is how Lin28a resets the biological age of a cell. The protein is most studied for its effects on an RNA molecule called let-7, which restricts cell proliferation and boosts maturation.
But Zhu and his colleagues found that Lin28a also affects cellular metabolism by boosting the levels of several enzymes involved in the functioning of mitochondria, the energy-producing organelles in cells.
The fact that metabolism was involved in the healing effect was the most surprising result, says Shyh-Chang Ng, a cell biologist at Boston Children’s Hospital in Massachusetts and one of the study's authors.
“Most biologists would think that you need a special factor to generate the healing pathway, but this is a thing that every cell has,” he says.
This idea is still a long way from having medical applications, however, says Ng. Most drugs target either enzymes or receptors on a cell's surface. Lin28a is neither; it is an RNA-binding protein located in the nucleus, and is therefore hard to target with conventional drugs. Furthermore, it has many effects on a cell, so knowing which to focus on is unclear.
By Monya Baker, Nature;
Further, I want to submit to your attention two separate
cases of immortal human cells, which have been discovered by scientists, but
before proceeding I want to add that I disavow lab testing on animals.
Though I am aware that there are cases in which lab testing may probably be
necessary for the "greater good," I'm sure that we could, at least,
seriously reduce this practice.
I. Nobel Price Winners Isolate Protein Behind Immortality
Nobel Prize in medicine went to a trio of scientists who discovered the enzyme telomerase, which allows cells to divide without any limits, making them effectively immortal.
I. Nobel Price Winners Isolate Protein Behind Immortality
Nobel Prize in medicine went to a trio of scientists who discovered the enzyme telomerase, which allows cells to divide without any limits, making them effectively immortal.
It may be nature’s greatest double-edged sword. Coax cells into producing telomerase, and they will survive indefinitely, but they will also become cancerous.
Muller thinks humans could live for 90 to 210 years once scientists know more about the molecular basis of aging.
“If we could figure out how to do maintenance, we could extend our lives,” he said. “But it has to be done very carefully, and we’d have to have a comprehensive understanding of the mechanism.”
II. HeLa: The Immortal Human Cells
HeLa cells come from an aggressive cervical cancer that attacked, and eventually killed, a women called Henrietta Lacks (hence the name HeLa).
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Henrietta Lacks
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Usually,
cells extracted from the human body die relatively fast, but Henrietta Lacks
has been dead for over 60 years and the cancer cells extracted from her body
are still going strong - which is pretty amazing, to say the least.
They are also very weird looking. HeLa DNA has been extremely mutated, having 82 chromosomes instead of 46. That strange DNA is also responsible for making the cells replicate abnormally fast, even for cancer cells, and they also have an active copy of telomerase - which means they can replicate indefinitely.
The cells that we are familiar with age as they divide, until they reach a stage known as the "Hayflick Limit," to which point they stop dividing, amking our bodies grow old and eventually die. Not HeLa cells!
They are also very weird looking. HeLa DNA has been extremely mutated, having 82 chromosomes instead of 46. That strange DNA is also responsible for making the cells replicate abnormally fast, even for cancer cells, and they also have an active copy of telomerase - which means they can replicate indefinitely.
The cells that we are familiar with age as they divide, until they reach a stage known as the "Hayflick Limit," to which point they stop dividing, amking our bodies grow old and eventually die. Not HeLa cells!
Immortality Discovered
Nobel Price Winners Isolate Protein Behind Immortality
This year’s Nobel Prize in medicine went to a trio of
scientists who discovered the enzyme telomerase, which allows cells to divide without any limits,
making them effectively immortal.
It may be nature’s greatest double-edged sword. Coax cells into producing telomerase, and they will survive indefinitely, but they will also become cancerous.
It may be nature’s greatest double-edged sword. Coax cells into producing telomerase, and they will survive indefinitely, but they will also become cancerous.
To safeguard against cancer, adult cells keep track of how
many times that they have multiplied, and once they have reached a pre-set
limit — often around 80 divisions — they die. Telomerase interferes with this
record keeping.
If you
can find a drug or gene therapy that interferes with telomerase, it could fight
the unchecked growth of cancer cells, said Mark Muller, a cancer researcher who
studies telomeres at the University of Central Florida.
“Ninety percent of all cancer cells are telomerase
rich,” Muller said.
Several companies, including Geron, have started testing
drugs that gum up the telomerase enzyme, so that it can’t extend the lives of
cancer cells.
Telomerase lengthens telomeres, repetitive DNA sequences that sit at the ends of chromosomes. Each segment of a telomere is like a ticket that gives it permission to divide. When cells run out of those credits, they cease dividing.
Geron is developing a modified DNA molecule that gets
stuck inside of telomerase, so that it can’t build up the ends of telomeres in cancer
cells. The company is also working with a vaccine that trains cancer patients’
immune systems to attack cells that produce telomerase. In adults, almost all
of the cells that produce telomerase are cancerous. Those cancer
treatments took shape almost 20 years after academics made a breakthrough
discovery.
In the early 1980’s Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and
Jack Szostak identified telomerase and learned how it works. Some scientists
speculated people could live longer by using the enzyme to buy extra time for
their aging cells, but that idea remains risky and unproven.
“By itself, lengthening telomeres would probably just
increase the rate of tumor formation,” said Chris Patil, a researcher at the
Buck Institute for Age Research in Novato, California. Experiments with mice
have shown that lengthening telomeres extends lifespan, but only if you
introduce multiple other mutations to block cancer.”
Considering the risks of telomere-extension therapy, he
thinks that scientists have bigger fish to fry.
“In the absence of a comprehensive understanding, it’s
very dangerous,” Muller said. “We have to figure out how to do maintenance on
our telomeres.”
Muller thinks humans could live for 90 to 210 years once
scientists know more about the molecular basis of aging.
“If we
could figure out how to do maintenance, we could extend our lives,” he said.
“But it has to be done very carefully, and we’d have to have a comprehensive
understanding of the mechanism.”
HeLa: The Immortal Human Cells
When scientists work with human cell lines in laboratories, they often work with HeLa cells. These amazing cells can live in a vial of nutrients, and from a small sample you can grow a large quantity to use in cancer research, in vitro fertilization research, stem cell research, virus research and in pretty much any kind of human biology research. They are any biologist’s dream.
HeLa cells come from an aggressive cervical cancer that attacked, and eventually killed, a women called Henrietta Lacks (hence the HeLa name).
Usually, cells extracted from the human body die relatively fast, but Henrietta Lacks has been dead for over 60 years and the cancer cells extracted from her body are still going strong - which is pretty amazing, to say the least.
They are also very weird looking. HeLa DNA has been extremely mutated, having 82 chromosomes instead of 46. That strange DNA is also responsible for making the cells replicate abnormally fast, even for cancer cells, and they also have an active copy of telomerase - which means they can replicate indefinitely.
The cells that we are familiar with age as they divide, until they reach a stage known as the "Hayflick Limit," to which point they stop dividing, amking our bodies grow old and eventually die. Not HeLa cells!
These amazing cells revolutionized our understanding of human biology, but Henrietta's family have yet to see a cent of it. In fact, those cells were taken from her without her permission.
Passage from the book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks":
"Her
name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor
Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet
her cells — taken without her knowledge — became one of the most important
tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they are
still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. If you
could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they’d weigh more than 50
million metric tons—as much as a hundred Empire State Buildings. HeLa cells
were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer,
viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in
vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold
by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an
unmarked grave."
From Humans Are Free @ http://humansarefree.com/2013/11/the-fountain-of-youth-gm-mice.html and http://humansarefree.com/2011/01/immortality-discovred.html
For more information about immortality, immortalism and longevity see http://nexusilluminati.blogspot.com/search/label/immortality
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