The technology is based on the techniques used to create the cloned Dolly the sheep over 25 years ago.
Scientists from Cambridge altered the skin cells of a 53-year-old woman, making them the same as those of a 23-year-old. They believe they can do the same with other tissues in the body.
It was noted that the goal is to develop treatments for age -related diseases – diabetes, heart disease and neurological disorders.
“We dreamed of things like that. Many common diseases get worse with age, and it’s very interesting to think of helping people in this way,” said group leader Professor Wolf Reik of the Babraham Institute in Cambridge.
He stressed that the work is at a very early stage.
The origins of the technique began in the 1990s, when researchers at the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh developed a method to embry an adult mammary cell from a sheep. So, the clone sheep Dolly was born.
Photo: wikipedia.org
Sheep Dolly
However, the goal of the technology is to create so-called human embryonic stem cells, such as muscle, cartilage and nerve cells, to replace broken parts of the body.
In 2006, Professor Shinya Yamanaka, then at Kyoto University, simplified this method using the new IPS method. It involves the addition of chemicals to adult cells for approximately 50 days, resulting in genetic changes that turn adult cells into stem cells.
However, both procedures are complicated because the created stem cells must be re -grown into the cells and tissue that the patient needs.
Now the team of Prof. Reik used the IPS technique on 53 -year -old skin cells. They reduced the chemical bath from 50 days to approximately 12. As a result, the cells did not become embryonic stem cells, but were re-transformed into skin cells.
At present, the procedure cannot be immediately transferred to the clinic, because the IPS procedure increases the risk of developing cancer.
“The long-term goal is to prolong human health, not lifespan, so that people can grow old in a healthier way,” Prof Reik added.
One of the first uses, he said, could be developing drugs to rejuvenate the skin of the elderly on parts of the body where they have been cut or burned to speed recovery. The researchers found that rejuvenated skin cells move faster in experiments that mimic a wound.
Soon, scientists plan to see if this technology will work on other tissues such as muscle, liver and blood cells.
“If similar approaches or new treatments can rejuvenate immune cells, which we know become less sensitive with age, then in the future it may be possible to increase people’s response to vaccination, as well as their ability to fight infections, ”the study authors conclude. .
Recall that earlier scientists from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, who specialize in respiratory systems, discovered an entirely new type of cell that hides in the thin branching passages of the human lungs.
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Source: korrespondent
