Life-Long KGF Overexpression Produces a Very Much Larger Thymus in Aged Mice

In today's open access paper, researchers map out the various epithelial progenitor cell populations responsible for producing and then maintaining the thymus, finding that these cells are quite diverse, with several types participating at different times during development and adult life. The thymus is of great interest in the context of aging because (a) it is where thymocytes mature into T cells of the adaptive immune system, and (b) it atrophies with age, active tissue replaced by fat, and the supply of new T cells greatly diminished. This is one of the major contributions to the age-related decline of the immune system. A better understanding of how the thymus is maintained could lead to novel approaches to regeneration, and maintenance of immune competence into later life. Numerous efforts have been made to identify a viable approach to regrow the thymus in adult humans. One of these is delivery of fibroblast growth factor 7 (FGF7), also known as keratinocyte growth factor (KGF). A good number of studies demonstrate that this approach can provoke regrowth of the adult thymus in animals. Today's paper adds to this body of knowledge by showing that life-long overexpression of KGF in genetically engineered mice produces a thymus that remains large into later life, and does so without exhausting the progenitor cell populations responsible for maintaining this tissue. Unfortunately the side-effects of KGF make it impossible to deliver large enough doses systemically i...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs