Rejuvenating women's skin can overcome the disease of aging.
Written byTimes Magazine
Researchers rejuvenated the skin cells of a 53-year-old woman to match the skin cells of a 23-year-old woman.
Cambridge scientists think they can do the same with other tissues in the body.
Its main goal is to develop treatments for age-related diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and neurological disorders.
"We only realized it then. "Many common illnesses get worse with age, and it's exciting to think about how you can help people in this way," he says.
However, Prof. Reich stressed that the work published in the journal eLife is still in its early stages. He said several scientific issues had to be addressed before moving from his lab to the clinic. But he told showing for the first time that cell rejuvenation was perhaps a significant step forward.
The origins of this technique date back to the 1990s, when researchers at the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh developed a method to convert adult milk cells taken from sheep into embryos. This led to the creation of the cloned sheep, Dolly.
Roslin's team's goal is not to create clones of real sheep or humans but to use technology to create what is known as human embryonic stem cells. To replace worn-out body parts, they hope to grow in specific tissues, such as muscle, cartilage, and nerve cells.
Dolly's technique was simplified in 2006 by Prof. Shinya Yamanaka, then at Kyoto University. The new IPS method involves adding a chemical to mature cells for about 50 days. This causes genetic changes that turn mature cells into stem cells.
With the Dollys technique and IPS, the resulting stem cells must grow into the cells and tissues that the patient needs. Unfortunately, this has proven difficult, and despite decades of efforts, the use of stem cells to treat disease is currently minimal.
Prof Rake's team applied the IPS technique to 53-year-old skin cells. But they shortened the chemical bath from 50 days to about 12 days—Dr. alt.
He said: "I remember the day I got the results, and I couldn't quite believe that some of the cells were 30 years younger than they should have been. It was such a great day!"
This technique cannot be transferred directly to the clinic because the IPS method increases cancer risk. But Professor Rake believes that it is now known that cells can be rejuvenated, and his team can find a safer alternative way.
Prof Rake said some of the first applications could be the development of rejuvenating skin drugs for the elderly in parts of the body where they have been cut or burned to speed healing. Researchers have shown that this is in principle possible by showing that their rejuvenated skin cells move faster in wound simulation experiments.
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