Extremely Long Lived Cells are Found in Many Tissues, Not Just the Brain

Researchers here report that the brain is not the only organ to exhibit cells that are as long-lived as the animal containing them. A number of other organs contain at least some long-lived cells, even for tissues thought to be highly regenerative and in which tissue turnover is comparatively rapid, such as the liver. It remains to be seen as to how this new information interacts with present thinking on the damage of aging, in which there is a central role for a reduction in stem cell activity and consequent loss of new cells generated to replace old tissue populations. Scientists once thought that neurons, or possibly heart cells, were the oldest cells in the body. Now, researchers have discovered that the mouse brain, liver, and pancreas contain populations of cells and proteins with extremely long lifespans - some as old as neurons. "We were quite surprised to find cellular structures that are essentially as old as the organism they reside in. This suggests even greater cellular complexity than we previously imagined and has intriguing implications for how we think about the aging of organs, such as the brain, heart, and pancreas." Since the researchers knew that most neurons are not replaced during the lifespan, they used them as an "age baseline" to compare other non-dividing cells. The team combined electron isotope labeling with a hybrid imaging method (MIMS-EM) to visualize and quantify cell and protein age and turnover in the brain, pancreas and live...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs