By helping the immune system eliminate dead cells, the body can regain, in part, its youthfulness.
The best anti-aging would be our own body. According to new research, carried out within the Weizmann Institute of Sciences in Israel, helping the immune system to eliminate dead cells would help the body to stay young. Their results are published in the journal NatureCommunications.
A study done on mice
To obtain these results, the researchers used mice and looked at their senescent cells: dead or partly dead cells. These have a role in age-related diseases because they contribute to inflammation.
The scientists wanted to better understand the role of the immune system in aging: they administered to mice a drug that blocks the action of a protein, the one that allows senescent cells to maintain themselves. The drug worked particularly well: the number of senescent cells in the rodents’ organisms fell. The blood tests were better, the activity tests also and the tissues of these mice looked more like those of young mice than before. The mice also had fewer signs of inflammation, and the treatment also allowed the rodents to be more active while living longer.
Researchers must now continue to study these phenomena to understand how these mechanisms act in humans. Eventually, they will be able to test their hypothesis on humans, and maybe one day, make the long-awaited anti-aging elixir.
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