In all living beings, aging is an inevitable process: with age, cells degenerate, malfunction, and this has the effect of making us weaker, less energetic. But the saying “if youth knew, if old age could” may soon become ancient history! It may well be!
By “heterochronic parabiosis”, scientists in China have succeeded in physically linking a young mouse with an older mouse. While the blood circulation of the two animals was shared, the older of the two mice showed signs of rejuvenation.
Heterochronic parabiosis
In pop culture, vampires feed on blood to survive and regain a youthful, immaculate face…and it turns out that a somewhat similar technique exists in real life. It’s called “heterochronic parabiosis” and as much to warn you, it’s not very appetizing.
How it works !
The principle is simple in theory, we connect two living beings like a kind of Siamese twins. Their blood being shared, the cells of one circulate in the immune system of the other. In a study published in Cell Stem Cell, Chinese scientists report having done the experiment on mice and claim that after several weeks, the organs, tissues and cells of the oldest rodent began to rejuvenate while those of the oldest young were beginning to age.
“Our work provides an actionable resource for advancing our understanding of systemic factors related to aging and how they might be targeted to mitigate aging,” said one of the study’s authors.
But does that mean we’ll soon see giant farms, where young humans give blood to their elders, like an episode of Love, Death & Robots? Nothing is less sure. As The Independent points out, it is not certain that this method can constitute an effective rejuvenation technique for humans.