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Science

Blood of Young Mice Extends Life in the Old (nytimes.com) 65

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
A team of scientists has extended the lives of old mice by connecting their blood vessels to young mice. The infusions of youthful blood led the older animals to live 6 to 9 percent longer, the study found, roughly equivalent to six extra years for an average human. From a report: While the study does not point to an anti-aging treatment for people, it does hint that the blood of young mice contains compounds that promote longevity, the researchers said. "I would guess it's a useful cocktail," said James White, a cell biologist at the Duke University School of Medicine and an author of the new study.

Joining animals together, known as parabiosis, has a long history in science. In the 19th century, French scientists connected the blood vessels of two rats. To prove that the rats shared a circulatory system, they injected belladonna, a compound from the deadly nightshade plant, into one of the animals. The pupils of both rats dilated. In the 1950s, Clive McCay of Cornell University and his colleagues used parabiosis to explore aging. They joined young and old rats, stitching together their flanks so that the capillaries in their skin merged. Later, Dr. McCay and his colleagues examined the cartilage in the old rats and concluded it looked younger. In the early 2000s, parabiosis went through a renaissance. Researchers used 21st century techniques to study what happened when animals of different ages shared the same bloodstream. They found the muscles and brains of old mice were rejuvenated, while younger mice showed signs of accelerated aging.
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Blood of Young Mice Extends Life in the Old More

Blood of Young Mice Extends Life in the Old

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  • Blade IV (Score:3)

    by DarkRookie2 ( 5551422 ) on Friday July 28, 2023 @04:21PM (#63722694)
    Is going to take place in Silicon Valley next it seems.

    • It's the most boring possible location for vampires. Night life is mostly coding to meet deadlines. Although a significant portion of the population will wilt wil exposed to sunlight.

      • It's the most boring possible location for vampires. Night life is mostly coding to meet deadlines. Although a significant portion of the population will wilt wil exposed to sunlight.

        They need to go where there is 30 Days of Night. [imdb.com]

    • No need for vampires. This young blood transfusion was the premise of a TV series [wikipedia.org] from the 1970.

  • They have been doing this for a long time (Score:5, Informative)

    by wakeboarder ( 2695839 ) on Friday July 28, 2023 @04:27PM (#63722710)
    Since the 1950's: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_blood_transfusion This is nothing newsworthy.

    • Re: They have been doing this for a long time (Score:4, Funny)

      by Grokew ( 8384065 ) on Friday July 28, 2023 @04:33PM (#63722720)
      Suddenly the conspiracy theories are starting to sound more and more real. What a weird thing.
      • Its rumored that rich people do this to extend their life

      • The theory says that there is a conspiracy of some rich people to do this. The current study brings no argument as to the actual existence of such conspiracy, which remains entirely unsubstantiated. The fact that a team of scientists now published a study about the benefits of consuming blood does not increase nor reduce the probability of the conspiracy theory to be true or false, in current time or even in future instances; because people crazy enough to drink the blood of the young based on the belief th

        • You knee-jerked a fast reaction just to post something near the top, obviously upholding the time honored tradition of not even finishing the summary, let alone actually reading the article. They're not talking about drinking blood, or even an occasional transfusion. This is all about actually connecting the circulatory systems of two animals for a continuous exchange of blood. For a human to do this would require carrying a kid on your back, slowly poisoning him/her to get a little lift for yourself. Calli

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ls671 ( 1122017 )

        Suddenly the conspiracy theories are starting to sound more and more real. What a weird thing.

        At least sometimes, there is no smoke without fire...

    • Re:They have been doing this for a long time (Score:4, Informative)

      by coldandcalculating ( 1311907 ) on Friday July 28, 2023 @04:55PM (#63722770)
      TLDR

      The difference this time is that the researchers measured changes in gene expression and epigenetics in multiple tissues with the aim of identifying the factors most associated with delayed aging. Once you have that information you could potentially create a drug or gene therapy that replaces the need for vampirism, but of course that takes all the fun out of it.
      • Nobody seems to be considering another possible source for this effect. It could be that the younger animal's organs, which presumably are working better, take some of the load off the older animal's organs. You can get a boost from extra kidneys and another liver to clean your blood, more efficient lungs for oxygen, bone marrow that can make more vigorous blood cells, etc. There may not actually be a particular group of chemicals that induce these changes at all. Tho I sure hope there is, and we find them

      • I agree about this time, yet [atlasobscura.com] it's hard to shake the idea that this is an idea that's lived on because of not just a little silliness. Silly hopes of vanity. But that said, I completely think that lengthening of our livespans repairing DNA and utilizing it's built-in mechanisms to avoid cancers and "combating aging" will be fully possible through continuing research into DNA and biochemistry in general. Just the same as we'll be able to rewrite our own coding. Well maybe not in my life, but certainly possibl

    • OMG! That's awful! They should just let those poor mice die already. Their little brains weren't meant to live for 70 years!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by nasch ( 598556 )

      It says right in the summary that similar experiments were conducted in the 19th century.

  • Vampires, Duh (Score:5, Insightful)

    by cruff ( 171569 ) on Friday July 28, 2023 @04:31PM (#63722714)
    Vampires knew this a long time ago.

  • Bart's blood saved, and rejuvenated, Mr. Burns.

  • Just ask Elizabeth Bathory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

  • Silicon Valley Blood boy (Score:3)

    by echo123 ( 1266692 ) on Friday July 28, 2023 @04:54PM (#63722766)
    This too has been previously satirized [imdb.com].

    "Are you really not familiar with parabiosis?" [youtube.com]

    paramibosis [umassmed.edu]
  • Sounds to me like the story of woman bathing in young blood might have some basis.
  • Now we should see old wealthy people buying the blood of young poor children. Perhaps it already happens.
    • Yes, but it sounds like they don't need to be virgins for this.

      • Yes, but it sounds like they don't need to be virgins for this.

        You suggest one could profit from both young blood and child prostitution. That thread is getting uglier than what I expected.

  • Data point (Score:5, Informative)

    by ElizabethGreene ( 1185405 ) on Friday July 28, 2023 @05:36PM (#63722828)

    A few things to note before you go out and hire a young'un for blood bag duty:

    Mouse model studies have also shown similar results from replacing 50% of the plasma in mice with an albumin solution.

    A follow up study was not able to replicate the result of that, and IIRC the primary difference was the former used centrifugation to separate the plasma and the latter used filtration.

    Next, and extremely important to note, Mouse results do not always transfer to humans.

    If you chose to legally donate plasma, you can donate twice a week at your local red cross or one of many pay-for-plasma donation centers across the country. The plus on that is, even if it ends up having no effect whatsoever on longevity, you'll be doing good for others.

    I don't know if the sub is still up post api-geddon, but this was a thing for a while in /r/longevity.

  • The infusions of youthful blood led the older animals to live 6 to 9 percent longer

    Not a turn of phrase I was expecting today...

  • oh great just what the world needs (Score:3)

    by Growlley ( 6732614 ) on Friday July 28, 2023 @05:57PM (#63722848)
    the current coffin dodgers extending the damage they are doing to human kind specially the super wealthly ones .
  • King Yayati had five sons. A rishi cursed him with old age. Yayati begged for youth from his sons. The last son, Puru, agreed to give up his youth in exchange for being made the Crown Prince. He agreed, and even after 1000 years of enjoying carnal pleasures, he was not satisfied. He realized there is no way to escape from lust by appeasing. He gathered his will power and quit lust, returned youth to his son and retired from worldly life.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

  • How many of those old mice did they kill anyway as part of the methodology?

  • Yeah, but you will have a craving for CHEESE now. ;)

  • Also acceptable: The Pentaverate.

  • So I have a question, by connecting the blood vessels the life of the older mouse is extended by 6-9%, what happens to the life of the younger mouse?

    • Does it matter? You just pay the parents of the young mouse a few million dollars.

    • So I have a question, by connecting the blood vessels the life of the older mouse is extended by 6-9%, what happens to the life of the younger mouse?

      If you'd read to the end of the quoted excerpt you'd have seen the last sentence is:

      They found the muscles and brains of old mice were rejuvenated, while younger mice showed signs of accelerated aging.

      • Also: Since they were now an induced "siamese twin", the death of the older mouse would kill the younger one, which means it would die substantially earlier than its non-conjoined life expectancy - far more than a 6 - 9 percent loss.

  • Imagine physically performing these experiments yourself. No. Just no. Standard mouse bioassay procedures are horrid enough, the duty is usually rotated in toxicology labs so that one person is not overly psychologically affected.
  • There is no truth to the rumor that Dianne Feinstein had me kidnapped and bled. Okay, I said it on video, now will you untie me and let me go? Wait, wait, what are those tubes???

    • More like that is how Dick Cheney keeps going; you do know he got a heart from a young man who was a perfect match that had an accident? Also, he also didn't have a pulse for years because he had an artificial heart pump. sounds like a bond villain or something doesn't it?
      Oh, and we have way more dead Iraqis than they were willing to admit (ever hear of wikileaks?) and tons of disappeared Iraqis... probably younger than Cheney.... but you bring up Feinstein who has moments of lucid speech?

  • "He was brought across in 2023" (Score:3)

    by Babel-17 ( 1087541 ) on Saturday July 29, 2023 @01:21AM (#63723372)

    "He was brought across in 2023, Preyed on other mice for their blood. Now he wants to be mortal again. To repay society for his sins, To emerge from his world of darkness, From his endless Forever Knight."

    Forever Knight Opening Title
    https://youtu.be/yPhIEG3JYtg [youtu.be]

  • All of a sudden the idea of the global elite harvesting the blood of young virgins to extend their life looks less silly.

    Slightly.

  • So maybe there is something in young blood that slows aging. Or maybe there is something in old blood that contributes to aging.

    AFAIR, there have been some studies that indicate that there is a positive health effect from donating blood. So assuming that there is something in the old blood that contributes to aging, that the body can't get rid of the normal ways (e.g. via urine) looks like a reasonable hypothesis. If that is true, to get the aging-slowing effect you just need to get rid of old blood (e..g b

  • Lacking any first principles like a real science (eg physics), biology is almost purely observational, "collecting butterflies" . So we get from this observational pass time posing as a science things like "Let's stitch these animals together and see what happens." Think about it: instead of these macabre experiments a physicist might look in detail at the young and old blood, then identify the differences and begin to theorize about how any differences might have an impact. In other words, you wouldn't

    • You clearly understand absolutely nothing about Biology and your knowledge of the discipline is limited to the lies-for-children version of 19th Century history of Biology you were taught in high school and got a B on.

  • Source Paper and Opinion (Score:4, Informative)

    by ElizabethGreene ( 1185405 ) on Saturday July 29, 2023 @12:00PM (#63724062)

    Zhang, B., Lee, D.E., Trapp, A. et al. Multi-omic rejuvenation and life span extension on exposure to youthful circulation. Nat Aging (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587... [doi.org]

    https://www.nature.com/article... [nature.com]

    I don't have access to the paper, but working from the abstract and figures it appears that the life span extension was not measured in calendar time, but implied based on changes in DNA methylation, epigenetics, and physiological testing. (I think the latter was a glucose response test, but that's not immediately clear through my ignorance.)

    <Opinion>For those unfamiliar with the scientific publications industry, the authors had to pay a fee to submit this paper and pay again when it was selected for publication. Unfortunately, they chose not to pay the additional eleven thousand dollars to publish open access on this online journal. This is a predatory industry that gets in the way of science and needs to be rebuilt from the ground up.</Opinion>

  • A similar but smaller study of this effect was done years ago. Then some clever researcher decided to do a control for the study. He simply removed a portion of the rat's blood plasma and replaced it with sterile saline. The saline had the exact same effect as the young rat blood. It implies the problem is something found in the blood of old rats; instead of there being something helpful in the blood of young rats.

    Despite this, many Silicon Valley ghouls have taken to injecting themselves with the blood of

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