Scientists prevent signs of aging in zebrafish by targeting the gut

When it comes to slowing aging in humans, telomeres have long been a tempting target. These complex, repetitive sequences of DNA that cap the ends of chromosomes tick away the years by shortening each time a cell divides, eventually causing the cell to die. The jury’s still out about whether reversing this shortening could be a molecular fountain of youth, but a new study in zebrafish is encouraging. When researchers lengthened telomeres in the gut cells of these tiny, translucent fish, they reversed signs of aging in the entire organism. “It’s a really good paper,” says Ronald DePinho, a cancer biologist at the MD Anderson Cancer Center who studies telomeres and aging. The authors of the study, published this month in Nature Aging , suggest their data could support an old theory that the gut somehow controls aging in all tissues . DePinho isn’t totally sold yet, but he says it’s clear that the organ plays an important role in healthy aging. During embryonic development, an enzyme called telomerase lengthens telomeres in order to allow cells to divide more often. But the gene for telomerase is largely shut off in most cells in adult humans; it only switches back on in cancerous cells that divide rapidly. Researchers have long been interested in telomerase as an antiaging treatment. Some evidence suggests giving mice telomerase can reverse the symptoms of aging , curbing everything from the appearance ...
Source: ScienceNOW - Category: Science Source Type: news