YOUNG BLOOD REVIVES AGING MUSCLES, STANFORD RESEARCHERS FIND- Office of Communications & Public Affairs – Stanford University School of Medicine
In older mice the satellite cells hold the same position, but are deaf to the muscle’s cry for help. In the Nature study, Rando and his group first attached old mice to their younger lab-mates in a way that caused the two mice to share a blood supply. They then induced muscle damage only in the older mice. Bathed in the presence of younger blood, the old muscles healed normally. In contrast, when old mice were connected to other old mice they healed slowly.
In similar work, the group examined the livers of older mice connected to younger lab-mates. The cells that help liver tissue regenerate are less active in older animals, but again the cells responded more robustly when the livers in older mice were bathed in the younger blood. Clearly, something in the youthful blood revived the regenerative cells in muscle and liver.