Some brain cells of mam mals can long out live the an i mal to which they orig i nally be longed, if trans planted in to a dif fer ent brain, new re search sug gests.
Some brain cells of mam mals can long out live the an i mal to which they orig i nally be longed, if trans planted in to a dif fer ent brain, new re search sug gests.
The find ings are raising scientists’ hopes that if they find a way to greatly in crease hu man life span, brain cells will co op erate by work ing long er accord ing ly.
In mam mals, neu rons, the main type of in forma t ion-processing brain cells, can last a whole life span in the absence of brain dis ease. But it has been un clear wheth er neu rons have a max i mum life span, si m i lar to oth er types of cells in the body which, un like neu rons, nor mally can rep li cate.
To find out, Lo ren zo Ma grassi of the Uni vers ity of Pa via in Italy and col leagues trans planted pre cur sor neu rons from the de vel op ing mouse in to rat em bryos. They used a strain of rat that can live on av er age nearly twice as long as the do nor mouse strain. The cells came from, and were trans planted to, a part of the brain known as the cer e bel lum.
The trans planted cells de vel oped in to nor mal neu rons that made them selves at home in the rat brains, though they re tained a mouse-like size and shape, the re search ers said. More o ver, these cells sur vived for as long as their rat hosts, or up to 36 months, roughly twice as long as the av er age life span of the do nor mice.
The find ings sug gest that the life span of the trans planted neu rons is not ge net ic ally fixed and may have been de ter mined by the rat brain “mi croen vi ron ment,” Ma grassi and col leagues wrote. They re ported their find ings in this week’s early on line is sue of the jour nal Pro ceed ings of the Na tio n al Aca de my of Sci en ces.
The re sults, they added, al so sug gest that in creas ing longe vity—a hall mark of tech no log ic ally ad vanced so cieties—won’t nec es sarily sad dle longer-lived peo ple with a prob lem of many dy ing brain cells.
“Our re sults sug gest that neu ronal sur viv al and ag ing are co in ci den t but sep a ra ble pro cess es,” they wrote. This in creases “our hope that ex tend ing or gan is mal life span by di e tary, be hav ior al, and phar ma co logic in ter ventions will not nec es sarily re sult in a neu ronally de plet ed brain.”
The find ings are raising scientists’ hopes that if they find a way to greatly in crease hu man life span, brain cells will co op erate by work ing long er accord ing ly.
Some brain cells of mam mals can long out live the an i mal to which they orig i nally be longed, if trans planted in to a dif fer ent brain, new re search sug gests.
The find ings are raising scientists’ hopes that if they find a way to greatly in crease hu man life span, brain cells will co op erate by work ing long er accord ing ly.
In mam mals, neu rons, the main type of in forma t ion-processing brain cells, can last a whole life span in the absence of brain dis ease. But it has been un clear wheth er neu rons have a max i mum life span, si m i lar to oth er types of cells in the body which, un like neu rons, nor mally can rep li cate.
To find out, Lo ren zo Ma grassi of the Uni vers ity of Pa via in Italy and col leagues trans planted pre cur sor neu rons from the de vel op ing mouse in to rat em bryos. They used a strain of rat that can live on av er age nearly twice as long as the do nor mouse strain. The cells came from, and were trans planted to, a part of the brain known as the cer e bel lum.
The trans planted cells de vel oped in to nor mal neu rons that made them selves at home in the rat brains, though they re tained a mouse-like size and shape, the re search ers said. More o ver, these cells sur vived for as long as their rat hosts, or up to 36 months, roughly twice as long as the av er age life span of the do nor mice.
The find ings sug gest that the life span of the trans planted neu rons is not ge net ic ally fixed and may have been de ter mined by the rat brain “mi croen vi ron ment,” Ma grassi and col leagues wrote. They re ported their find ings in this week’s early on line is sue of the jour nal Pro ceed ings of the Na tio n al Aca de my of Sci en ces.
The re sults, they added, al so sug gest that in creas ing longe vity—a hall mark of tech no log ic ally ad vanced so cieties—won’t nec es sarily sad dle longer-lived peo ple with a prob lem of many dy ing brain cells.
“Our re sults sug gest that neu ronal sur viv al and ag ing are co in ci den t but sep a ra ble pro cess es,” they wrote. This in creases “our hope that ex tend ing or gan is mal life span by di e tary, be hav ior al, and phar ma co logic in ter ventions will not nec es sarily re sult in a neu ronally de plet ed brain.”
In mam mals, neu rons, the main type of in forma t ion-processing brain cells, can last a whole life span in the absence of brain dis ease. But it has been un clear wheth er neu rons have a max i mum life span, si m i lar to oth er types of cells in the body which, un like neu rons, nor mally can rep li cate.
To find out, Lo ren zo Ma grassi of the Uni vers ity of Pa via in Italy and col leagues trans planted pre cur sor neu rons from the de vel op ing mouse in to rat em bryos. They used a strain of rat that can live on av er age nearly twice as long as the do nor mouse strain. The cells came from, and were trans planted to, a part of the brain known as the cer e bel lum.
The trans planted cells de vel oped in to nor mal neu rons that made them selves at home in the rat brains, though they re tained a mouse-like size and shape, the re search ers said. More o ver, these cells sur vived for as long as their rat hosts, or up to 36 months, roughly twice as long as the av er age life span of the do nor mice.
The find ings sug gest that the life span of the trans planted neu rons is not ge net ic ally fixed and may have been de ter mined by the rat brain “mi croen vi ron ment,” Ma grassi and col leagues wrote. They re ported their find ings in this week’s early on line is sue of the jour nal Pro ceed ings of the Na tio n al Aca de my of Sci en ces.
The re sults, they added, al so sug gest that in creas ing longe vity—a hall mark of tech no log ic ally ad vanced so cieties—won’t nec es sarily sad dle longer-lived peo ple with a prob lem of many dy ing brain cells.
“Our re sults sug gest that neu ronal sur viv al and ag ing are co in ci den t but sep a ra ble pro cess es,” they wrote. This in creases “our hope that ex tend ing or gan is mal life span by di e tary, be hav ior al, and phar ma co logic in ter ventions will not nec es sarily re sult in a neu ronally de plet ed brain.”
Courtesy of PNAS and world of Science
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