I have recently read an article on the Scientific American
called the Brain's Stem Cells Slow Aging in Mice by Sara Reardon published July
26, 2017. On this article, it is discussed a study that advances the hypothesis
that the function of the hypothalamus affects aging.
The study performed by Dongsheng Cai, a neuroendocrinologist
and other colleagues, at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City first
observe that cells within the hypothalamus disappeared as mice aged.
As the article further described the scientist involved in
this study went on to advance the study by injecting the stem cells (taken from
the hypothalamus) of newborn mice into middle age mice, their conclusion was
that the treatment with stem cells improved the cognitive and muscular function
of the mice in comparison to untreated mice, as well as an addition of a 10% increase to their lifespan.
As a biology student, I love to read articles such as this
one that further illustrates how the scientific method is applied in the real
world. Also, in my opinion quality of life comes from being able to enjoy everything that
comes with it and for that you’ll need cognitive function and your ability to
use your body (muscular function) among many other things, especially for
generations that are expected to live longer than previous ones, this is data
that could very well improve our lives as more research develops from what we
have already learn from mice experiments.
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