In an article published in Nature Communications, researchers have found that injecting stem cells into mice with progeria, a condition that causes premature aging, the mouse lifespan was extended two to three times what was expected.
With ageing, there is a loss of adult stem cell function. However, there has been no previous direct evidence that this has a causal role in ageing-related decline. The researchers tested this using muscle-derived stem/progenitor cells (MDSPCs) in murine progeria diseased mice.
Typically the progeria mice die at around 21 to 28 days of age, but the treated animals lived far longer — some even lived beyond 66 days. They also were in better general health, the researchers said.
These results establish that adult stem/progenitor cell dysfunction contributes to ageing-related degeneration and suggests a therapeutic potential of post-natal stem cells to extend health.
Animals that age normally were not treated with stem/progenitor cells as part of this study, but the provocative findings urge further research, state the researchers. They hint that it might be possible one day to forestall the biological declines associated with aging by delivering a shot of youthful vigor, particularly if specific rejuvenating proteins or molecules produced by the stem cells could be identified and isolated.
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