Deleting a key gene, accelerated aging, increased lifespan of the test mice by half. This can be done at the stage of embryo development. According to a new study diminishes, if the deletion of the gene occurs after birth. The information was published this week in Science Translational Medicine by researchers from Perelmans school of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
With age, biological rhythms slow down and eventually stop altogether. What is the relationship between the aging process and the molecular clock — is still unknown. To evaluate the role of molecular clock in the aging process, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania under the direction of doctor of medicine garret A. Fitzgerald, head of Department of systems pharmacology and applied therapeutics, removed the protein BMAL1 in laboratory mice: adult and newborn individuals.
In both cases, the clock of aging were suspended. However, some of the effects pointing to aging are common to both mice and cataracts signs of neurodegeneration. The lifetime and period fertility, as well as signs of arthritis were absent in newborn mice, the BMAL1 protein which has been removed at the stage of formation of the fetus. For example, the ability of growing hair after shave left even in old, by mouse standards, age.
It was determined that the gene BMAL1 starts aging with increasing age. This was stated by Guangli Yang, PhD, Professor in pharmacology. However, he added that future research aimed at clarifying when and why BMAL1 begins to function as a trigger of aging.
Withdrawal BMAL1 is necessary to explore the impact of molecular clocks on body functions and the formation of disease. The results of these studies are important in the context of understanding the role of “clock genes” in the development of mammals.
“Indeed, the extraction of BMAL1 on the stage of the embryo affects the lifetime, thus confirming Barker’s hypothesis, which States that the predisposition to disease and the life expectancy is decided at an early stage of development,” said Dr. Fitzgerald.
Also the Barker hypothesis includes the idea that the epigenetic influence of maternal effects, for example: cigarettes, alcohol consumption and toxins — affect the formation of proteins and other important substances. Given the ability to extract genes of aging, there is the intriguing possibility of modulating human DNA to prolong his life.
