For instance, it is really easy to entice people suffering from aging diseases into experimental medical trials. People suffering from Alzheimer’s disease are well aware that their illness is serious and that there is no specific cure available – the experimental drugs provided no guarantee – they can either make one worse or slightly alleviate the pathology.

Clinical trial on aging diseases is something that can bring great results, but there are high risks. In order words, it is easy to have someone sick to entice on human trials but will someone who is free of any aging disease be willing to participate in similar research; to find a drug for longevity (healthy aging) knowing that there might be lots of risk involved.

For instance, the famous bio-gerontologist, Aubrey de Grey, suggest that it is possible to avoid cancer by putting an end to telomere shortening; Telomeres acts as protective ends to our chromosomes and do shorten during cell division. As cells continue to divide the telomere does steadily get shorter until a point that cells can no longer divide, and turn into a state of senescent. It has been believed that telomere shortening has evolved as an evolutionary way to prevent the emergence of cancerous cells. Apparently, most of the cancer cells tend to stimulate genes that increase the length of telomere and thereafter tumors starts to populate. In fact, Agar is very positive about Aubrey De Grey’s theoretical explanation, but he also says that he would definitely not want to be the first one to undergo human trials, after mice and monkey experiments.

The SENS [Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence] project interest different group of people, yet clinical trials have diverse risks. Elders who are healthy wouldn’t sign-in for clinical trials when it is possible to pay other people to carry out the dirty testing. In addition, there won’t be only one ‘cure’ for aging. Currently, multiple researches are addressing various age-related damages. In the struggle to find some cures, there will definitely be a dozen of failures.

In all medical researches, it is essential to conduct as many human trials as possible. SENS suggest that soon people will be able to live healthy up to an advance age.

In the future, will the poor become the susceptible to human trials? Maybe or maybe not. Accordingly, to Agar, it is certain that extensive animal models will be used before testing on humans – still the risk is highly present. Bio-informatics enterprises need to seriously evaluate how anti-aging interventions will affect the population.

Actually, Agar’s objections are somehow outdated as telomere treatment as a cure to increase longevity is already being realized. Regulating telomere length via different pathways is curing cancers. In addition, if Aubrey de Grey’s hypothesis is right than curing cancer will even lead to longer lifespan. Treating cancer with telomere therapies might help people to live longer and healthier.

In 2010, a Harvard report found that increasing the length of telomeres in mice can significantly increase the lifespan. According to Agar, the next step in telomere research will be to involve elders who are poor. This seems, to be a fallacy indeed, as rich people seem more enthusiastic in paying and extending their own lifespan. Currently, rich people are purchasing TA-65 a drug to increase the length of telomeres.

Source: Reason, Ta-65 and PR News Wire

Anti Aging, Health And Aging, Stem cells

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In accordance to scientists, there now exist a test that can genetically predict if a person will be able to reach his 100th birthday.

Researchers of Yale University and Boston University Schools of Public Health and Medicine, Boston Medical Center, IRCCS Multimedica found in Milan in Italy had undertaken this study. This research claims that, based on the age of the subject, it is able to forecast an outstanding lifespan with up to 80% of accuracy.

According to this research, centenarians are role models of aging healthily, for the start of disability in such persons is in most cases delayed till they have reached their mid-90s.

Due to the fact that an extraordinary prolonged lifespan can run powerfully in families as well as because several studies on animals have implied that strong genes have an impact on an extended lifespan, the scientists embark on their journey to establish which are those genetic variants that have a strong role to play in man survival after his 100 years.

The research discovered that subjects who had common profile of deviation for genetic markers seem to share comparable degrees of threat for different traits or illnesses linked with outstanding longevity.

Individuals sharing such genetic characteristics may look forward to enjoy longer lives. The research may moreover provide an explanation as to why living more than 100 years old seems to run in the blood.

The findings of this study are the amended version of the work that was initially published the previous year in Science. The first version was withdrawn voluntarily. The most recent version comprises of data from very old individuals, with a mean age of 107.

An associate professor of medicine, Thomas Perls, of the Boston University School of Medicine, portrayed the results of the study as being a constructive move towards significant predictive medicine as well as personal genomics.

He advanced that when researchers are able to so this type of analysis on a complete genome series for traits which have considerable genetic mechanisms, the predictive significance should be much more.

Dr Perls went on to say that more in-depth research regarding such genetic traits could provide a profound understanding of the biological and genetic sources of postponing or avoiding age-related illnesses and thus attaining an extended lifespan.

This novel methodology regarding genetic data is applicable to several other complicated inherited characteristics. Researchers are now hoping that other research teams to apply these approaches to their fact and figures.

Source: New Zealand Herald

Anti Aging, Gerontology, Health And Aging, Longevity

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In fact, it is possible to avoid the usual aging-related disease by simply adopting a healthy lifestyle and diet. Yet, the modern society tempts us to consume junk food and beverages, which are unhealthy. In addition, unhealthy food seems to be cheaper due to the mass production approach used, involving even GM foods. For the economy mass production of food is a good thing, but the real price is being paid by downgraded human health.

Government intervention on the subject of healthy food is highly subjective and distorted. It seems that the state is more interested in poisoning us than curing the food industry.

Facts: Government Promote Unhealthy Food

If we look at the Modern American society, we see more people becoming obese, year on year. Diseases are also distressing younger adults and even in some cases affecting children. This applies to illness such as heart disease and diabetes, not to mention cancer. This is the real case scenario despite that people have more awareness on health than ever before.

In economic terms, it makes sense to subsidize unhealthy food. It will bring profit in various ways; first food becomes cheap, secondly people start falling sick and this is followed by a win-gain position for the medical industry.

Some Examples:

In the past FDA had considered walnuts as being an effective drug, but when Diamond food, Inc provided scientific evidence of the benefits of walnuts on their webpage. The company was forced to remove the information from their webpage, and if they didn’t they would be faced with risk of being out of business. At the same time, FDA permitted Frito Lay to post claims that deep fried carbohydrate-laden chips were healthy. In other words, the stronger your lobbyist is the more likely are you to promote your products.

On Life Extension Legislation, we can find some interesting facts on the support of these FDA legislation.

But we always have choice, Dr. Michael Rose suggests that a hunter-gatherer lifestyle can actually end aging. It helps to prevent most health predicaments; cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

Source: Newsletter – Maximum Life Foundation

Anti Aging, Health And Aging, Lifestyle

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Recently, a group of research from University of Pittsburgh confirmed that they had found the secret behind a rodent’s fountain of youth.

In the University, there is a colony of progeria mice; mice which have been infected with a rare disease, inducing them to die from old age after 21 days. Yet, when the researcher group took these progeria mice, which were just about to die and injected them with stem cells taken from younger and healthier cousins the dying mice recovered and stayed alive for an addition 2 to 4 weeks.

Dr. Laura Niedernhofer, lead research said that the size and lifespan of these progeria mice could be triple through this method.

It is more than a century that researchers have been using mice for medical experiments. The mice used nowadays are tweaked and engineered, sharing blood, livers as well as brain tissues of other groups of species. The Pittsburgh progeria mice are, however, quite different from human and will probably not provide an immediate answer on how to increase human longevity.

Even so, engineered or so called re-made rodents are increasingly becoming alike to human; the disparity between man and mouse are slowly vanishing. Not only are the differences fading but researchers do nowadays even have a deeper knowledge of rodents than human and any other creature found on earth. For research, rodents are indispensable.

Some History: Mice & Laboratory Research

Ostensibly, the first vaccination against cancer was done on a mouse. In addition, mice do already have treatments for baldness as well as capsules to save them from Alzheimer’s disease. Furthermore, mouse is the only animal to have been involved in hoverboard-style levitation as well, they have had their brain simulated in a computer. They were even the first non-human mammal to have had their whole genome mapped.

Everything began in 1902, when a scientist named William Castle, brought pet mice to the Harvard Genetics Laboratory, and now rodents have been the back-bone of almost all the key drug treatments as well as medical procedures used in modern medical care. According to Dr. Janet Rossant, who is the senior scientist as well as chief research at Tornoto’s SickKids Research Institute, almost all the major drugs marketed today have been the result of mouse models in developing drugs.

Statistics are surprising; in 2010, a total of 1,132,706 mice had been killed in Canadian laboratories. In any year, mice make up to 50 percent of the animals used in laboratories, and the second most commonly used animal is rats.

There are strong similarities between humans and mice. They both have immune system, circulatory systems and skeletons. In addition, mice and human can suffer from similar health predicaments such as diabetes, cancer, heart diseases, and with some minor genetic modification, mice suffer even from Alzheimer’s disease and cystic fibrosis. In laboratory terms, using mice makes sense; they are cheap, have a lifespan of 12 weeks and are easy to maintain. In other words, in the term of a single semester, several studies can be completed.

According to Dr. Michele Martin, who is a veterinary director at the University of Victoria, apparently ‘almost any disease’ you can find you will come to know that there is ‘a mouse model’ that has been used to ‘describe it’.

In 1929, the Lab Mouse Pioneer C.C. Little, Jackson Laboratory was founded, which is today’s leading supplier of so called genetically modified mice. There are more than 5,000 different strains of mice in the laboratory. The cost for a classic ‘dilute brown’ mouse, which is the oldest in the catalogue is roughly $30 a piece. It was first developed in 1909.

In the beginning mice were changed in the same way as dog breeders had changed wolves into Chihuahuas; selective inbreeding. However, in the 1980s, genetic engineering was available and since then it has been much easier to tweak and create customized mice.

In 2002, the first non-human animal, the rodent had its whole genome mapped. The mice had 99% of its gene shared with humans. This gave rise to a whole new agenda of scientific research.

In modern research, mice are no longer kept in wire-bottom cages; they are placed in large collective cages. This makes the mice happier and for research, it is better to have normal animals involved in research for more accurate results.

From 2000 to 2009, the number of mice euthanized in Canadian Laboratory experiments amounted to 10 million, which are equivalent to 3,000 mice per day.

Universities in China, Korea and Japan have an annual memorial day every year to serve homage to all animals that have been killed in research as well as experiments. The ceremony is a way for research communities to show their indebtedness to laboratory animals; as today almost every pill bottle sold in pharmacy across the globe are the result of thousands of mice.

In 1929, penicillin was first discovered, but it was only in 1940 that Oxford University could understand how penicillin worked, and it was thanks to research conducted on mice. Similarly, meningitis as well as polio vaccines are mainly a result of the lab mice.

According to Dr. Rossant, mice are ‘very, very powerful systems’ to comprehend the distinct pathways of severe diseases. Yet, lab mice are not perfect. There is a dozen of cures available for cancer which works on mice but not yet on humans. In addition, Thalidomide is a drug that caused defects to almost 10,000 children, noting that it had no negative effects on mice.

The degenerative disease, ALS, which Stephen Hawking, the theoretical physicist suffers from have various rodent-based therapies – yet – the 70 years-scientist will probably not live long enough to see the therapy available for humans.

In the 100 years that mice have been used for research, the aim has always been to change the rodent into a so called tiny human being. Nowadays, rodents have human blood, humne immune system, human organs, and they even have the bad human traits such as violence, alcoholism, drug addiction as well as gluttony.

In December 2011, the U.S Based national Institute of Health, reduced funding for additional research on chimpanzees as a progressive step to prevent research on chimpanzee. Chimps have been considered to human to have laboratory experiments justified. Several countries around the world have mirrored the widespread discontent of chimpanzee research through the so called ‘save Gabon’

Yet, mice are increasingly becoming like human, as the engineered mice aren’t really as the traditional mice.

Source: national Post

Anti Aging, Bioscience, Stem cells

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Super-centenarians’ (people living to 110 or beyond) are uncommon in the general population. In developed countries only one person out of every 5 million is predisposed to live to 110 years or beyond. An American research team has found evidence showing that genetics seems to be one of the main reasons for extreme longevity.

The current study was categorized as ‘a first-of-a-kind’ where the complete genome sequence of a woman and man aged past 114 years was studied. It was found that they had an equal amount of disease-related genes as the general public.

It was found that the man had 37 genetic mutations, which were related to colon cancer. According to Dr. Thomas Perls, who is the Director of the New England Centenarian Study, mentioned that the man had in his earlier life experienced obstructing colon cancer which hadn’t metastasized when it was treated with surgery. At Boston University Medical Center, Perls said that the man was in good physical and mental condition until his death.

In addition, the woman did also have a high volume of genetic variations, which were directly associated to age-related diseases such as cancer, heart disease and Alzhemier’s disease. But, it was only in her late life; around 108, that she started to develop mild cognitive impairment and congestive heart failure.

Other research teams have found similar finding; suggesting that centenarians have an equal amount of disease-related genes as the overall population. According to Perls, centenarians seem to have longevity-associated genes, which eradicate the negative effect of the disease genes. These longevity variants do either delay disease or in some cases prevent the diseases from even occurring. In most cases, the diseases tend to be delayed, and this enables these people to live almost to the human lifespan limit.

On the 3rd of January 2012, the study was published in the Journal Frontiers in Genetics. The information is also available at U.S National Institute of Health.

Sources: Family Doctor and USA Today

Anti Aging, Gerontology

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Ray Kurzweil, an inventor, futurist as well as author of The Singularity is Near has developed documentary film: Transcendent Man.

Ray’s film is inspirational to all ages, and will possibly help to motivate funding for development of technology that can rejuvenate our organs as well as the body.

The Transcendent Man is a derivates of Kurzweil’s famous singularity prediction. New technologies starting from the simple printing press to Google are tools, which are rapidly helping new technologies to evolve even faster. In other words, the pace of innovation is an exponential curve that accelerates.

Moore’s law has been significantly explained in Kurzweil’s prediction and applied to social connection as well as informative technology. For instance, if the trend of computer was to be extrapolated, we can see super-computers occupying full-sized room, now being reduced to the size of only a laptop.

Biology is also being transcended into an informative science with progress in genomic sequencing. Machines are not only supporting research. They are even promoting better health and enabling us to overcome body limitations. In the near future, it might be even feasible to introduce nanobots into our blood stream to fight real viruses.

According to Kurzweil, in three decades henceforth singularity will be achieved, and machines will be so intelligent that human won’t be necessary to continue to innovate. The inventions will solve all possible traceable issues associated with aging and death.

Most of us considered singularity to be a provocative prediction. However, Kurzweil has made several accurate predictions such as in 1970s he said that in 1998, computer will become the world’s most performing chess player. In the 1970s this seemed impossible.

Singularity is something highly feasible; it is in line with physics laws. So it is rather a question of when it will happen than if it will happen.

Who is Ray Kurzweil, in the 1960s he was a teenager when he made a computer which analyzed as well as composed classical music. He achieved this at MIT. After school, he produced an optical character recognition (OCR) system. innovation that followed was manifold including large-vocabulary speech recognition software as well as text-to-speech software for people who were blind.

At the age of 35 years, Ray suffered from diabetes a disease that his father died from. However, instead of sitting back waiting for his grave, he decided to comprehend the chemistry behind diabetes. After fully understanding the condition, he designed a regime of various medical supplements. Currently, he claims that he has been able starve-off the havoc of age. He has even published two books on his medical research.

The film predicts that humanity will be able to go way beyond the current biological boundaries. The aim is to one day be able to overcome death and to become immortal. So in 2 decades microscopic robots should be able to heal most of our potential health predicaments.

Anti Aging, Immortality, Longevity, Nanotechnology

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A group of researchers from National Taiwan University & Johns Hopkins have managed to alter the lifespan of typical single-celled yeast organisms. This was achieved by comprehending how to restore and remove protein associated with the aging of yeast.

The biologist found that whenever the age-related enzyme variant was removed the lifespan of the organism was significantly reduced. However, restoring the same protein led to a radical extension to the lifespan.

Jef Boeke, Director of the Hit Center & Technology Center for Network & Pathways, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine said for yeast, the study unveiled that a particular molecular component associated to the aging pathway appeared similar to the pathway that regulates the lifespan and longevity of humans.

According to Boeke, this is the first research that found a particular bio-chemical pathway of youth and aging, which is totally unrelated to diets.

Boeke says that a particular chemical type called acetylation forming part of the acetyl group of molecules goes on and off. It is similar to another enzyme Sip2, which works in the same way as decoration. It goes on and off.

Besides, acetylation is a necessary protein to enable organisms as well as systems to better and faster adapt to environments.

The researchers found that acetylation of the enzyme Sip2 influenced longevity in a particular way. It dictated how frequently the yeast cell could divide thus influencing the replicative life span.

In general, the replicative lifespan of yeast is 25 years. However, when the yeast was genetically modified to be able to restore the chemical alteration the lifespan of the yeast increased to 38, which is a rise of approximately 50 percent.

The scientists did manipulate the lifespan of the yeast by mutating various chemical residues, to create a similar effect to the acetylated and de-acetylated type of the enzyme Sip2.

This study was published in the Cell, September, 16. According to Jin-Ying Lu, M.D., PH.D., from National Taiwain University, the next step is now to test whether the same is true for other mammalian cells.

Source: Times of India

Anti Aging, Bioscience, Lifestyle

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One such experiment, which slowed the aging process in mice, used a process of either flushing all the old and dead cells out of the organism.

The huge amount of caution needs to be exercised in case of experiments in mice applies. In spite of this, this study is the first of its kind, which has manually affected cell aging – whose significance has been a debatable topic among biologists for several decades – thereby introducing the scope to determine its effect in aging in humans.

The results are definitely visible, even though only a single strain of mice genes was modified. These mice were already treated in such a way that their heart would eventually be affected, hence died as pre-determined. But they definitely had much better health.

Mayo Clinic’s Darren Baker, who is a specialist in gerontology, said that the mice were healthy right until the moment of their death.

On 2nd November, the journal ‘Nature’ published the experiment of Baker and his colleague, which killed those mouse cells which produced a protein known as p16Ink4a or p16 in short.
All by itself, p16 is not the entire story. It restrains tumor. But a more important fact is that it is termed as a biomarker which indicates more to it. If a cell is found to be containing p16, there is a probability that it has attained its limit of replication, and saturation point in the process of aging.

This process of slowing down is a normal occurrence in the life cycles of cells was first brought to light by biologists Paul Moorhead and Leonard Hayflick. Incessant division of cells is tantamount to Cancer. It was suggested that cellular senescence had its own limitations by scientists in the 1990.

The cells, whose functioning was slowed down, refused to die out. If they died, they would be flushed out by tissues. On the contrary, they would just remain there, while cell-polluting substances and inflammatory proteins would ooze out of them. Abnormality in the functioning of tissues that is a result of cell-aging is believed by many researchers to lead to heart disease, cancer and other age-related disorders.

Although this hypothetical phenomenon looks apparently credible in cell cultures and samples of tissues from cadavers, living aging animals have not been tested with it.

Director of the Division of Aging Biology of the National Institute on Aging Division (which provided funds for this research), Felipe Sierra, said that ultimately what matters is the result of increasing or decreasing cellular aging in an animal. It is here that the hypothesis features, thereby making it very important.

Baker, along with Jan van Deursen, a gerontologist at the Mayo Clinic, led their team who initiated this experiment by giving rise to an unnaturally aging mice strain. Inactivation of p16 and other genes linked to cell aging in mice at the embryonic stage, led to the normal aging process.

It indicated the significance of cell-aging alright, but would have been more convincing if the treatment were given to mice who had gone through cellular aging for the majority of their lives. To demonstrate such a desired effect, a mouse strain that would age faster was designed by van Deursen and Baker. This new mouse strain could dispense cells producing p16 from eyes, fatty tissues and muscles, when treated with the drug.

After the drug was administered, the mice’s muscles ceased to release waste. There was no growth of cataracts. They were in very good health right until the time their hearts stopped functioning. These organs were not affected by the cell-aging stoppage breakthrough.

Sierra spoke about the apparent relevancy of senescence by acknowledging the part it essays in disorders brought on with age.

However, Baker and Sierra both recommended to treat with caution. Applying this phenomenon to diseased mice kept in a germ-free environment is much easier than applying it to mice that are healthy. It could give rise to hitherto unexpected effects. It was termed as ‘Proof of Principle’ by Baker and ‘Low-Hanging Fruit’ by Sierra.

University of Texas’s gerontology expert Steven Austad, who did not play any part in the research, supported these warnings. He shed light on the fact that many experiments which succeed when performed on mice turn out to be more complex than initially thought to be. In very recent times, a lifespan increasing drug, which was much touted, faced a loss of credibility when newer findings did not prove the drug to live up to its promise.

Austad said that the proof about the existence of a technology that could be used to kill cell-aging in specific tissues is the most interesting thing even more interesting in than the effect of the animal itself. He said that the way to do this has been uncovered with great difficulty, and it paves the way for much bigger developments ahead in time. This carries the rise of an ever-present query for experts – what role does cell-aging play in aging of the entire animal?

According to Sierra, results are a bit difficult to obtain as the aging process differs across different cell cultures and tissue types. For example, cells of the brain are already being tested.

Sierra said that this study of senescence has been evolving for the past five decades and the excitement is unlimited.

Source: Wired

Anti Aging, Bioscience

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A newly born Australian baby girl could very well look forward to living up to 100 years even in the present day, owing to the developments in medical expertise; standard of living and health services offered the general public.

Now with the introduction of new therapies of stem cells; the development of new medicines to enable the human body to heal itself is reaching higher levels of applications.

Professor Smith, who is the UNSW Medicine Dean, said that the current circumstances offer a lot of hope that the human race would be able to enjoy an increase in longevity by a few decades. He said that being alive for as long as 150 years may feel scary to some. However, it would be an excellent experience provided you are fit and fine until the last years of your life. According to him, the objective is not merely to squeeze out additional years but to also provide for long and healthy years.

However, the main topic of discussion of Professor Smith’s lecture on 17th October 2011, bearing the title ‘Happy and healthy ageing: paradox or possibility?’ was, the grave challenges that society would have to face due to increased lifespan of humans.

The professor said that people would surely not wish to spend several decades at home doing nothing after retiring from their duties at the age of 65.

Oxford University neuroscientist Baroness Susan Greenfield also predicts that people would start to have more than one career. Some people would begin their second careers at the age of 65 and engage in knowledge oriented activities rather than physical jobs.

However, for people to survive up to an age of 150 years the priority should be to deal with conditions such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. If these aging diseases aren’t addressed than longer life would result as a social and economic disaster, she said.

Harvard University’s ageing expert from Australia, David Sinclair, said that the pace at which the human body age is controlled by a cluster of genes. According to him, the human body’s ability to heal itself is remarkable.

It was shown by Professor Sinclair that red wine contains a plant compound called resveratol, which is capable of adding to the longevity of fungi, worms, flies and mice, by secreting sirtuins – a type of proteins.

GlaxoSmithKline acquired the company co-founded by him in 2008 for a price of 720 Million USD. He said that synthetically generated molecules, which are 1000 times stronger than resveratol, are being clinically tested on humans suffering from age-related ailments such as Diabetes 2, and they are proving to be capable of producing early side-effects. The first and foremost objective of the trials is to deduce medicines to heal the aged sick people and after that, try to postpone the setting in of age-related disorders. He said that although it is a too early stage in the trials, they seem to be witnessing the start of a revolutionary technology that could soon enable humans to touch an advance age of 150 years.

In September 2011, scientists from Britain questioned the authenticity of the connection between increased lifespan in worms and flies, and sirtuins. This was reported in the international journal ‘Nature’.

To this, Professor Sinclair responded by saying that even though ageing is such an area of science which generates a controversy even today, he has confidence in the strong foundation upon which his team’s research stands. – Human lifespan is likely to continue to increase.

Source: SMH

Gerontology, Longevity

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A study shows that even if there are no changes in the overall hereditary constituency of roundworms. They can pass on the characteristic such as an increased lifespan to their offspring via genes.

While it is uncertain if humans can be influenced in a similar manner, it was observed by the study organiser from Stanford University, Anne Brunet, that human lifespan was later found to be affected by the very genes which influenced that of roundworms. She said that in various instances, this species of worms has been a good example for the human species. Humans have a lifespan which is 2,000 times the length the worm.

Whether the process exhibited by the nematode species ‘Caenorhabditis elegans’ applies to species such as rodents and fish, which follow an evolution pattern similar to humans, is currently being examined by Anne’s team. This kind of phenomenon, where offspring inherits only the changes in the usage of the DNA rather than changes in the DNA, itself, is known as ‘Epigenetic Inheritance’. Along with the development of animals, minute marks, the likes of Post-its, highlight their genes and protein constituents, instructing which DNA strands to be replicated without any modifications in the basic structure. With the birth of their offspring, the marks are supposed to change, but some remain constant.

According to Anne Brunet who is from Stanford University, and the lead author of the study says that the concept of epigenetic inheritance plays a significant part in intricate characteristics such as extended lifespan, and also ailments such as Cancer, Diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease. She says that these conditions are influenced by our genes and also the way we care for ourselves, but the traits and actions of our forefathers are also something which we need to consider.

Processes such as reprogramming cells into stem cells or cloning are highly dependent on retaining and/or eliminating certain of these epigenetic marks could be improvised with the aid of genetic studies. In due course, these marks can even be altered by experts in order to increase lifespan or bring down the possibility of diseases that are hereditary.

The international journal ‘Nature’ published this newest discovery on 19th October 2011. It all started with Brunet’s student Eric Greer and his experiment with nematodes exhibiting changes in the genomic sequence; in one out of three genes; SET-2, WDR-5 and ASH-2. This set of genes dictates the packaging of our DNA. Apparently, it altered our genes from compact structure into a loosely bound form where the sequence could easily be identified.

A disorder in one out of the three genes can cause several strands of genes to clamp together. This makes it difficult to reach several of the genes available and even those responsible for the process of ageing. The result is astounding – a 20 to 30 percent increase in the life span of the worms was experienced with having one of the genes faulty. .

The breeding of these genetically altered worms was carried out by Greer in such a manner that a part of their next generation carried the same pattern of genes. However, in spite of the DNA being normal, the offspring exhibited a longer lifespan. This pattern was repeated thrice. Recently, epigenetic inheritance has been observed in many instances by experts, such as, color of hair in mice, symmetrical flower patterns and many similar things. Brunet, however, said that they did not expect that it could be possible to inherit an intricate characteristic such as increased lifespan by techniques, which were non-genetic.

University of Adelaide’s Professor Emma Whitelaw praised the beauty of the discovery. She said that epigenetic inheritances spanned across multiple generations have many controversial ideas attached to it, and it is not easy to eliminate genetic disparities that are not detected.

However, in the research conducted by Greer, the discontinuation of longevity trend after three generations suggests that it is unlikely that DNA changes are involved. Whitelaw said that these developments will encourage scientists to explore the idea in a more serious manner.

The concept of epigenetic inheritance is frequently viewed as a revolutionary step in the history of evolution. It appears to take us back to Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, whose opinions were disregarded as incorrect, when he put forth the idea that parental characteristics could be inherited by the offspring.

Brunet said that, owing to the newly found facts that change in genes can be transmitted the next three immediate generations, people finally have understood that genes don’t dictate everything. However, this does not imply that Lamarck’s views were correct; it is now clear that some characteristics are influenced by epigenetic impressions.

Leiden University Medical Center’s Dr. Bas Heijmans emphasized on the fact that modern understanding of evolution is by no way contradicted by epigenetic inheritance. If it improves the success rate of an organism in passing forth its genes, then it will be allowed to evolve by natural selection – Darwinian fitness.

By alerting the forthcoming generation before time, of the issues being faced by the present lot of organisms, epigenetic inheritance could present them with a temporary benefit. For instance, in case of famine, passing the information ahead could prove beneficial, said Brunet.

It is impossible to estimate the implications of this in the long run. The discontinuation of the extended lifespan of the worms bred by Greer after three generations is similar to most of the other instances of epigenetic inheritance. The species are not likely to endure a permanent impact. Brunet said that this phenomenon is not a permanently evolving thing.

Related articles:
1. Stress a Natural Phenomenon, which is passed on to Future Generations through Epigenetic
2. We Can Be In Charge Of Our Genes
3. Epigenomic Changes in DNA methylation and Histone Actylation
4. Programmed Epigenomic Changes

Source: Guardian

Anti Aging, Gerontology, Longevity, Stem cells

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