Scientists Turn Back the Clock on Adult Stem Cells Aging

[TECH NEWS]

Researchers have shown they can reverse the aging process for human adult stem cells, which are responsible for helping old or damaged tissues regenerate. The findings could lead to medical treatments that may repair a host of ailments that occur because of tissue damage as people age. A research group led by the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and the Georgia Institute of Technology conducted the study in cell culture, which appears in the September 1, 2011 edition of the journal Cell Cycle. The team began by hypothesizing that DNA damage in the genome of adult stem cells would look very different from age-related damage occurring in regular body cells. They thought so because body cells are known to experience a shortening of the caps found at the ends of chromosomes, known as telomeres. But adult stem cells are known to maintain their telomeres. Much of the damage in aging is widely thought to be a result of losing telomeres. So there must be different mechanisms at play that are key to explaining how aging occurs in these adult stem cells, they thought.

 Citation:

Inhibition of activated pericentromeric SINE/Alu repeat transcription in senescent human

adult stem cells reinstates self-renewal.  Cell Cycle, Volume 10, Issue 17, September 1, 2011

9/20/2011, David Terraso, Georgia Tech/Kris Rebillot, Buck Institute