Health & Medicine
Molecular Defects Drive Aging Immune Systems
Kathleen Lees
First Posted: Aug 01, 2014 12:22 AM EDT
The key to slowing an aging immune system may be hidden in molecular defects that could be helped out with certain rejuvenation therapies, according to findings published in the journal Nature.
However, lead study author Emmanuelle Passengue, Ph.D., a professor of medicine and a member of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCSF, says that treating stem-cell decline assocaited with the problem is key.
As blood and immune cells typically have shorter lives, unlike most tissues, they must constantly be replenished in order to stay alive. In other words, cells must keep producing them throughout their lifespan, otherwise known as hematopoietic stem cells.
The cell division cycles that help preserve these stem cells generates daughter cells that give life to replacement blood and immune cells. However, the hematopoietic stem cells falter with age as they lose the ability to properly replicate their DNA.
"Everybody talks about healthier aging," Passegué added, in a news release. "The decline of stem-cell function is a big part of age-related problems. Achieving longer lives relies in part on achieving a better understanding of why stem cells are not able to maintain optimal functioning."
With future studies, researchers said they hope to make it possible to prevent stem-cell population decline with the help of new drugs to prevent the loss of helicase components necessary for DNA replication.
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First Posted: Aug 01, 2014 12:22 AM EDT
The key to slowing an aging immune system may be hidden in molecular defects that could be helped out with certain rejuvenation therapies, according to findings published in the journal Nature.
However, lead study author Emmanuelle Passengue, Ph.D., a professor of medicine and a member of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCSF, says that treating stem-cell decline assocaited with the problem is key.
As blood and immune cells typically have shorter lives, unlike most tissues, they must constantly be replenished in order to stay alive. In other words, cells must keep producing them throughout their lifespan, otherwise known as hematopoietic stem cells.
The cell division cycles that help preserve these stem cells generates daughter cells that give life to replacement blood and immune cells. However, the hematopoietic stem cells falter with age as they lose the ability to properly replicate their DNA.
"Everybody talks about healthier aging," Passegué added, in a news release. "The decline of stem-cell function is a big part of age-related problems. Achieving longer lives relies in part on achieving a better understanding of why stem cells are not able to maintain optimal functioning."
With future studies, researchers said they hope to make it possible to prevent stem-cell population decline with the help of new drugs to prevent the loss of helicase components necessary for DNA replication.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone