The Interaction Between Metabolism and Stem Cell Aging

In today's open access paper, researchers discuss the influence of metabolism on the aging of stem cells. Stem cells maintain tissue by providing a supply of daughter somatic cells to replace losses. Animals have evolved to minimize the risk of cancer by limiting the ability of near all cells to replicate. Somatic cells operate under the Hayflick limit, driven by loss of telomere length with each cell division, leading to senescence or self-destruction when telomeres are short. Stem cells use telomerase to maintain long telomeres and thus continually produce replacement somatic cells with long telomeres. Unfortunately stem cell activity is reduced with advancing age, leading to a reduced production of somatic cells and the steady decline of tissue maintenance and function. The causes of this are complex, even while being energetically explored by a large portion of the broader research community. At the very high level, damage to stem cells, damage to the supporting cells of the stem cell niche, and changes in the signaling environment that cause stem cells to become more quiescent, even if undamaged. The balance of these issues appears different for different stem cell populations. Aged muscle stem cells appear functional when given a youthful environment, for example. Metabolic Regulation of Stem Cells in Aging Somatic stem cells integrate critical environmental inputs that inform decisions on self-renewal, differentiation, and subsequent tissue turno...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs