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posted by martyb on Friday July 10 2020, @01:04AM   Printer-friendly

Age-related impairments reversed in animal model (SD)

Frailty and immune decline are two main features of old age. Researchers from the University of Bern and the University Hospital Bern now demonstrate in an animal model that these two age-related impairments can be halted and even partially reversed using a novel cell-based therapeutic approach.

[...] The team around Dr. Noti and Dr. Eggel could demonstrated that a certain kind of immune cells, known as eosinophils, which are predominantly found in the blood circulation, are also present in belly fat of both humans and mice. Although classically known to provide protection from parasite infection and to promote allergic airway disease, eosinophils located in belly fat are responsible to maintain local immune homeostasis. With increasing age the frequency of eosinophils in belly fat declines, while the number of pro-inflammatory macrophages increases. Owing to this immune cell dysbalance, belly fat turns into a source of pro-inflammatory mediators accumulating systemically in old age.

In a next step, the researchers investigated the possibility to reverse age-related impairments by restoring the immune cell balance in visceral adipose tissue. "In different experimental approaches, we were able to show that transfers of eosinophils from young mice into aged recipients resolved not only local but also systemic low-grade inflammation", says Dr. Eggel. "In these experiments, we observed that transferred eosinophils were selectively homing into adipose tissue", adds Dr. Noti. This approach had a rejuvenating effect on the aged organism. As a consequence, aged animals showed significant improvements in physical fitness as assessed by endurance and grip strength tests. Moreover, the therapy had a rejuvenating effect on the immune system manifesting in improved vaccination responses of aged mice.

They managed to work COVID-19 into the press release.

Journal References:
Daniel Brigger, Carsten Riether, Robin van Brummelen, et al. Eosinophils regulate adipose tissue inflammation and sustain physical and immunological fitness in old age, Nature Metabolism (DOI: 10.1038/s42255-020-0228-3)

Chih-Hao Lee. Young eosinophils rejuvenate ageing adipose tissues, Nature Metabolism (DOI: 10.1038/s42255-020-0230-9)


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  • (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Friday July 10 2020, @01:22AM

    by krishnoid (1156) on Friday July 10 2020, @01:22AM (#1018923)

    Other than just goofing off until a parasite shows up [youtube.com].

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Friday July 10 2020, @02:25AM (6 children)

    by aristarchus (2645) on Friday July 10 2020, @02:25AM (#1018932) Journal

    Another post from out resident "thanatophobic". Take it from me, not dying has it's down sides. One is you have to put up with all the abuse for uneducated and inexperienced neophytes. The other is that more and more defecation becomes the highpoint of your day. But if you have to resort to Young Blood vampirism like Peter Thiel, then it is unearned (or, uncursed? The problem is that if the curse is put on you, through no fault of your own, then no harm, no foul. But if you call it down upon yourself by sacrificing the younglings just so you can hang on to your miserable existence, well, then. . . ) and so life-extension is a liability. Grandpa: One thing about living in Santa Carla Silicon Valley I never could stomach,all the damn vampires. [rottentomatoes.com]

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 10 2020, @02:30AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 10 2020, @02:30AM (#1018933)

      I'm waiting for some dumbfuck idiot that reads this and starts going zombie on somebody's belly fat.

    • (Score: 1) by Sulla on Friday July 10 2020, @02:44AM (1 child)

      by Sulla (5173) on Friday July 10 2020, @02:44AM (#1018936) Journal

      Speak for yourself Greekoid, you Eastern-types always were melodramatic.

      --
      Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
      • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Friday July 10 2020, @02:51AM

        by aristarchus (2645) on Friday July 10 2020, @02:51AM (#1018938) Journal

        And you Romans, what with the "falling on your sword", the fratricides, the incest, and the Imperium? Best not to pitch lithia, in praesentia cum domo speculo.

    • (Score: 2, Informative) by aristarchus on Friday July 10 2020, @04:27AM (2 children)

      by aristarchus (2645) on Friday July 10 2020, @04:27AM (#1018960) Journal

      See?

      the abuse for uneducated and inexperienced neophytes.

      Has modded me troll. I do not mind. I am not offended, in the slightest. But just remember, mostly likely, when you are mouldering in the filth of ages, I will still be posting in the SoylentNews of the future.

      • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday July 10 2020, @04:20PM (1 child)

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday July 10 2020, @04:20PM (#1019135) Journal

        Welcome to hell. There is some good news, and some bad news.

        First the good news. You can get Usenet in hell!

        The bad news is that there is only one news group: comp.news.sci.red.soc.talk.misc.

        --
        People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
        • (Score: 5, Funny) by turgid on Friday July 10 2020, @10:00PM

          by turgid (4318) Subscriber Badge on Friday July 10 2020, @10:00PM (#1019243) Journal

          Many years ago, a Young Conservative told me the following joke.

          A man dies suddenly and finds himself in Hell. He is distraught. While he is moping, another man sidles up to him. "What's the matter?" he enquires sympathetically?

          "I've... gone to the wrong place," comes the snivelling reply.

          "Oh, it's not so bad," says the other. "Do you smoke?"

          "Yes, I do."

          "Oh well, then," comes the consolatory reply, "You'll like Mondays. On Mondays, we smoke all day long, And do you drink?"

          "Yes, I like a tipple now and then."

          "Excellent. You'll be very happy on Tuesdays. We drink all day long. Gambling?"

          "I do enjoy the odd game of cards, and a flutter on the gee-gees,"

          "Wonderful! On Wednesdays, from dawn to dusk we gamble non-stop. Are you gay, by any chance?"

          "No."

          "Ah, you won't like Thursdays then..."

  • (Score: 2) by Ken_g6 on Friday July 10 2020, @03:07AM

    by Ken_g6 (3706) on Friday July 10 2020, @03:07AM (#1018942)

    ...acid reflux, allergies, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus (even though it's never lupus).

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eosinophilia#Causes [wikipedia.org]

    I don't think I'm ready for this treatment.

  • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday July 10 2020, @03:08AM (1 child)

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Friday July 10 2020, @03:08AM (#1018943) Journal

    IIRC, other tests have shown practically the same results by filtering "pollutants" out of the blood. (Can't remember if I ever knew exactly what those pollutants were, something that increases with age.) Other tests have shown similar results by killing off senescent cells. All of these approaches have had practical problems with application on large scale...but the number of different approaches having the same results may point to some commonality that *could* be addressed.

    WRT this particular approach, it's worth remembering that the mice in most labs are essentially genetically identical, so they wouldn't provoke an immune system approach. For this to work you'd probably need to take a biopsy, clone the appropriate stem cells, treat them to seem young, and then culture them to the volume you intend to insert. Doable, but certainly not cheaply, and fraught with potential errors at every step.

    --
    Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 10 2020, @03:50AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 10 2020, @03:50AM (#1018958)

      Have you ever considered piracy chelation? It is just as scientifically established as Naturopathy, Stupidopathy, and Homeopathy, and Homopathos. Send in for our free informational bomb!

  • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Friday July 10 2020, @03:26AM

    by MostCynical (2589) on Friday July 10 2020, @03:26AM (#1018949) Journal

    about [lidsen.com]
    telomeres [nih.gov]?

    --
    "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 10 2020, @05:37AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 10 2020, @05:37AM (#1018972)

    Or you know, instead of buying this new transfusion subscription they're developing you could lose the belly fat so there's nothing to trigger the inflammation in the first place.

    This is an example of people seeing what they expect to see. "Frailty and immune decline are two main features of old age" No! Even in the summary it says further down they demonstrate it's the increasing inflammation that's the cause, not old age. Curing the inflammation doesn't make you stop aging. It stops the slow, on-going damage to your body. Being old doesn't mean you're inherently frail and in poor health. Age is not the issue, inflammation is the issue and you can solve that without their solution. People who are sick for a long time look sick. Those frail old guys are frail because they been sick for so long not because they're old.

  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday July 10 2020, @04:24PM (1 child)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday July 10 2020, @04:24PM (#1019139) Journal

    A recurring theme, even here on SN from time to time, are articles about how the old can extend their lives by taking something from the young.

    No thanks.

    When my time is up, I'm ready to go.

    Good luck to the young. Sorry the previous several generations made such a mess of things.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Friday July 10 2020, @05:00PM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday July 10 2020, @05:00PM (#1019154) Journal

      A recurring theme, even here on SN from time to time, are articles about how the old can extend their lives by taking something from the young.

      No thanks.

      In practice, whatever chemical or cell needed will be created synthetically or from a patient's own cells.

      Kind of like how stem cell researchers figured out how to reprogram skin cells to become embryonic stem cells, making all of the Bush-era restrictions (which had already been rolled back) obsolete.

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
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