Can you imagine never aging? No need for hyaluronic acid, or excessively expensive surgeries (or losing your muscles because of botox??). Well, biomedicine has just made an incredible leap. A group of Chinese researchers has managed to reverse aging in elderly monkeys using stem cells designed to resist the passage of time.
More than one celebrity loves this information, eh. After almost a year of tests, the results were stronger bones, better brain performance, recovered fertility and much less inflammation. All without serious adverse effects! The study has been published in Cell and confirms that it is possible to slow down aging, say goodbye to creaking knees and back pain!
How these stem cells work
Stem cells are the repairers of the body. They regenerate tissues, maintain internal balance and strengthen organs. The problem is that, with age, their number drops and so does their effectiveness. That is why inflammation appears, bones get weaker and neurological problems arise (which is in fact what worries us the most as human beings).
The team of Jinghui Lei and Zijuan Xin created special cells, called SRCs (Senescence-Resistant Cells), capable of maintaining their regenerative capacity even in organisms comparable to humans of 60 or 70 years. For 44 weeks, the monkeys received injections of these cells.
What happened with the monkeys
The scientists could not believe it, the monkeys showed stronger bones, better memory and coordination, reduced inflammation and even a boost in fertility, at those ages! They showed more stable overall health and fewer damaged cells, a complete surprise for the researchers.
Even more so because there were no serious side effects. No tumors or damage to vital organs appeared. It is believed that a good part of this success is related to exosomes (vesicles released by the cells that act as messengers, transmitting regenerative and anti-inflammatory signals).
Why it matters
Because it has been achieved in primates! Not in rats, do you know what that means? That soon they could be testing it in humans (because primates and humans are very similar, you remember that, right?).
Of course, slowly, because the study was done with very few monkeys and results still need to be replicated in other laboratories. Nobody can guarantee that the effect will be the same in humans, but for now the step is big enough to continue investigating.
Exosomes, the great promise
Exosomes could become a simpler alternative than stem cell transplants, instead of introducing whole cells, it would be enough to use these vesicles to stimulate regeneration and reduce risks. Could this also be the basis for treating the most deadly diseases of the 21st century?
Not the first attempt
As you know, there have been years of attempts to manipulate aging. Already in 2022 some researchers managed to rejuvenate human skin cells by 30 years. At Harvard, the team of biologist David Sinclair managed to reverse aging in mice. Now, with this step in primates, the field of regenerative medicine enters a more serious stage.
Is time no longer irreversible?
Beyond extending life what they intend is to improve it. There is still a long way to go to implement this discovery in humans, but maybe aging does not have to be a burden for anyone and we can live it with the best possible health. Are we stopping the passage of time? No, they want to improve quality of life, only that! And it is something incredible!
If you want to read more of the study, we leave you the link here!