Key points from article :
Researchers report that they can rejuvenate human cells to a youthful state.
“One of the most promising areas of aging research," - Leonard P. Guarente, an expert on aging at MIT.
Embryonic cells' fate is determined by chemical groups, or marks, that are tagged on to their epigenome.
As the cell ages, it accumulates errors in the marking system, which degrade the cell’s efficiency.
Powerful agents known as Yamanaka factors reprogram a cell’s epigenome to embryonic state.
If dosed for a short enough time, cells retained their identity but returned to a youthful state.
Aged cartilage cells after a low dosage of Yamanaka factors no longer secreted the inflammatory factors.
Human muscle stem cells which are impaired in a muscle-wasting disease, could be restored to youth.
Turn Biotechnologies to develop therapies for osteoarthritis and other diseases.
Study by Stanford University published in Nature Communications.
