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Recent experiments conducted in Boston labs have shown reverse aging results among mice and could show similar results in people.
The combined experiments -- which were conducted during a span of 13 years -- published Thursday (January 12) in the scientific journal Cell reported that old, blind mice regained eyesight, developed smarter brains and built healthier muscle and kidney tissue, challenging the theory that DNA was the only cause of aging, as it proved that chemical and structural changes to chromatin played a factor without altering genetic code.
The research showed that a breakdown in epigenetic information caused the mice to age and the restoration of the epigenome reversed aging effects.
“It’s not junk, it’s not damage that causes us to get old,” said anti-aging expert David Sinclair, a professor of genetics in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School who also serves as co-director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research, during the health and wellness event Life Itself, presented in partnership with CNN. “We believe it’s a loss of information — a loss in the cell’s ability to read its original DNA so it forgets how to function — in much the same way an old computer may develop corrupted software. I call it the information theory of aging.”
Jae-Hyun Yang, a genetics researcher in the Sinclair lab who c-authored the study, claimed that the recent experiments would "transform the way we view the process of aging and the way we approach the treatment of diseases associated with aging," with similar results expected for humans.
“We hope these results are seen as a turning point in our ability to control aging,” Sinclair added via Harvard Medical School's website. “This is the first study showing that we can have precise control of the biological age of a complex animal; that we can drive it forwards and backwards at will.”