Mouse Engineered to Grow Younger
Analysis by Tim Wall - Tue Nov 30, 2010 12:12 PM ET
http://news.discovery.com/animals/mouse-engineered-to-grow-younger.html#mkcpgn=emnws1
Move over Ponce DeLeon, researchers returned a mouse genetically engineered to age faster than normal to a
youthful state, like the title character in F. Scott Fitzgerald's, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”
Lightmatter_lab_mice A frail mouse with failing organs was restored to vibrant youth when researchers re-activated
production of the enzyme telomerase. Their findings were published online this week in the journal Nature.
SEE ALSO: Stem Cells Create Mighty Mice
Researcher Ronald DePinho, director of the Belfer Institute of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and colleagues at
Harvard Medical School engineered mice that did not produce the enzyme telomerase, a chemical which protects the
ends of DNA strands from being lost during replication. In an earlier study, these mice died after only six months,
compared to the three-year life span of a normal mouse.
SEE ALSO: Long Life Is in the Genes, Study Shows
But in DePinho's recent study, a chemical fountain of youth was given to the mice when they received special form of
estrogen. The mice were engineered to produce telomerase only when this special estrogen was present.
Four weeks after inserting a time-release pellet of the estrogen compound, the researchers observed rejuvenation in
the formerly frail mice. The rodents became fertile, their brains, livers and other internal organs grew, and the mice
performed better in tests of cognitive ability.
SEE ALSO: Anti-Aging Secrets in Girl's Genes?
Humans who suffer from the disease progeria and other accelerated aging disorders may take hope from this study,
since telomerase performs a similar function in people. Eventually this could even lead to treatments for, and
prevention of, age-related diseases in all humans.
However, the experiment does not exactly represent a fountain of youth. The mice used were genetically engineered to
age rapidy and DePinho acknowledges that an important question remains: Can aging be delayed in a normal mouse?
The mice in the study did not live any longer than normal non-engineered mice.
Read More on Aging: Discovery News
In normal mice an excess of telomerase can lead to cancer. But DePinho notes that the mice in this study didn't
develop tumors when they were restored to a normal level of telomerase production.
He also believes the risk of cancer could be minimized by only turning on telomerase production for a few days or
weeks.
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