Studies Find ‘Young’ Blood Rejuvenates Aging Mice

Vermin soaring.File photo dated 01/08/2002 of a rat nibbling on a chip in central London. Issue date: Tuesday February 10, 2009. Rat and mouse infestations increased across the country with councils making more than ... Vermin soaring.File photo dated 01/08/2002 of a rat nibbling on a chip in central London. Issue date: Tuesday February 10, 2009. Rat and mouse infestations increased across the country with councils making more than 650,000 call outs last year, according to pest controllers. The National Pest Technicians Association (NPTA) said poorly managed alternate weekly rubbish collections were fuelling the problem. See PA story ENVIRONMENT Rats. Photo credit should read: Kirsty Wigglesworth/PA Wire URN:6862294 (Press Association via AP Images) MORE LESS
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NEW YORK (AP) — If Mickey Mouse is feeling his age at 86, scientists may have found just the tonic: the blood of younger mice.

Older mice got stronger, exercised longer and performed better mentally after they were injected with blood from young mice, or even just with a substance that’s more abundant in younger blood.

Someday, if more research goes well, this may lead to a way to treat some infirmities of old age in people. In the meantime, scientists have a warning for do-it-yourselfers.

“Don’t try this at home,” said Saul Villeda of the University of California, San Francisco, an author of one of three papers published online Sunday by the journals Nature Medicine and Science.

He worked with mice that were roughly the equivalent of people in their 20s and 60s. Researchers repeatedly injected the older mice with blood from either the younger animals or other aged mice. Those that got the young blood did better in learning and memory tests than the mice given the older blood. For example, they performed better at recalling where to find a submerged platform in a maze.

Villeda said the researchers are trying to figure out what’s in the young blood that made the difference.

The two other papers, from Harvard University, focused on a substance that is more abundant in the blood of younger mice than old. That protein, called GDF11, is also found in human blood and its concentration also appears to decline with age, said Amy Wagers, an author on both papers.

On average, aging mice that got injections of it showed greater grip strength and more endurance on a treadmill than untreated mice.

The Harvard scientists also found that exposing older mice to the blood of younger mice produced more blood vessels and blood flow in the brain. Injections of GDF11 had a similar effect. Lee Rubin, a study author, said those results suggest further work may lead to a way to treat age-related mental decline and perhaps dementia in people.

Wagers and Villeda said it’s not clear whether GDF11 explains the results of Villeda’s study. Wagers said she suspects other substances in blood can also help aging animals.

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Online:

Nature Medicine: http://www.nature.com/nm

Science: http://sciencemag.org

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Malcolm Ritter can be followed at http://www.twitter.com/malcolmritter

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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