Reversal of aging by young blood transfusion

Can an old person regain new strength and repair his depreciated organs such as heart and skeletal muscles, some brain cells and neurons by getting a blood transfusion from a younger person?

Source: agingscience.com

It has been earnest desire of the man kind to either live for-ever and at least delay the aging process so that one can remain youthful.

Scientists have been doing research to understand the aging process and many experiments have returned encouraging results. For example, we now know that there is a terminal segment in our DNA, called telomere which plays important role in how many times a cell will divide. With every cell division the length of telomere recedes resulting in loss of telomere length. Such is our DNA replication process which eventually leads to cellular senescence and aging.

Source: telomerance.net

Recently, the stem cell research has open a vast horizon of possibilities in terms of defying aging, replacing damaged organs and scientists have understood what are the factors needed to transform a stem cells into different body organ.

Now, this new finding has come where the researchers have provided a clue to the first question I put in the beginning. Working on the problem raised in 1950s by Dr. Clive M. McCay of Cornell University that why after parabiosis, a process of connecting two individuals by their blood vessels, of an old and a young mice, the older mice got rejuvenated by the plasma of the younger mice, two unrelated groups of scientists have claimed that blood transfusions from younger individuals may make an older individual young, repair their hearts and may cure an aged brain.

Source: neurorexia.com

The answer lies in the availability of some proteins in higher amount in the blood of young person which appears to stimulate the stem cells leading to the formation of new and young tissue in old person.

We all have stem cells in our body and they help us maintain our body homeostasis, vigour and adulthood. As we age, the factors which direct and guide the stem cells to repair the damaged organs and form new ones decrease leading to aging and aging-related diseases.

The scientists have identified some of the factors in blood plasma that may turn the clock for older individual. For example, the team scientists led by Dr. Amy J. Wagers of Harvard University identified a protein called GDF11 in young blood plasma that may stimulate the stem cells in old individual leading to the formation of new heart tissue.

Clinically, it means that this protein can be used a medicine to rejuvenate the damaged heart of an aged person after an attack. It may also be used as a supplement for older people to strengthen their heart and reduced the risk of heart diseases.

The same may be possible in case of Alzheimer's disease and many other neurodegenerative conditions that results due to aging.

After this path-breaking discovery, it is necessary to understand the mechanism how different factors guide the stem cells to convert into a specific cell of a specific organ. Such understanding should result in devising some cocktail drug which affects majority of body organs than taking individual drug to repair specific organ.

In science, every new discovery has potential harmful side too. In this case as well, there are concerns. The stem cell stimulation may also result in cancerous tissue which will be required to be negated for beneficial use.   Also that these experiments have been performed on mice and it will take time to try and test if these results hold true in humans.

Nonetheless, ‘hope is a great thing’. I am going close my eyes and think of possibilities of playing soccer with my great grand-children, why not!!

Further readings:

1.      http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nm.3569.html

2.      http://www.sciencemag.org/content/344/6184/630

Communicating Science to a Common Man

On my way to the airport recently I was enjoying the view outside and trying to understand the growth model in this part of the country which boasts the presence of greenery along with the upcoming multistory buildings. Suddenly, car driver’s voice broke the stream of my thought. He inquired who we were going to receive and what was the purpose of his visit. I was not surprised by his inquisitiveness and accepted this invitation to initiate the conversation. In this I saw an opportunity to interact with a common person, who probably has no science background, in his language and see if he could appreciate what the scientists do.

We were headed to the airport to receive our guest speaker who was going to deliver an award lecture on the role of biotechnology in insuring food security for steeply growing population of our country as well as that of the world as a whole.

It has always been difficult task for scientists to communicate what they do in their labs to the general public. Thus, to address his inquiry appropriately, I had to think for few seconds before replying. I thought that if I told him that the scientists around the world are trying to use the tools of biotechnology and information available from genomics and proteomics to enhance stress tolerating capacity and increase the productivity of our crops, will he be able to comprehend. Definitely not, and our conversation would not survive even for a minute.

This dilemma has been the root source of miscommunication between what scientists do in their laboratories and how common people perceive that. This communication gap has complicated the situation and has resulted in many incidences of friction and non-acceptance of many new technologies which are directly associated with addressing prime problems that our societies are facing. However, I took the challenge and tried to make it interactive and interesting for him.

I asked him, if our population kept increasing and the land for farming kept decreasing due to various construction activities and other factors such as drought, salinity, wetlands; how he thinks we are going to feed these many people.

Image curtsy: www.jayhanson.us

He seemed clueless but was curious to know if we have answer this question.

Image curtsy: World food programme

I challenged his imagination and asked whether he can think of getting many fold more grains from a single wheat or a rice plant, and whether rice plants can grow even in semi-dry condition, and whether these possibilities will answer my first question.

He said if farmers can grow water based crops in semiarid areas and if those crops can give more yield than usual we certainly have the answer.

Then, I told him that the speaker we are going to receive today is a scientist who has done a lot of breakthrough work in this area. He and his colleagues have made a rice crop by inserting some genes so that it may tolerate, grow and survive in salty and dry soil and produce increased amount of rice.

The common man in the driver realized the implication of this scientific achievement and said that the scientists are doing much more for the society and people than many VIPs that he goes to fetch from airport on daily basis. Although I did not heed to his comparison, I was certainly relieved that he understood the potential of science to take the future challenges of humanity.

This conversation with a common man, a cab driver, proved one point undoubtedly that there indeed is a gap in how scientific achievements are communicated to our public and how our people perceive it or how their perceptions are manipulated by the vested interests.

There is urgent need to fill this gap by better communication in simple and non-scientific words so that public acceptability of scientific accomplishments can be increased and any unfounded fear of the new technologies is thwarted.

In an illuminating lecture our guest speaker, a honorable and highly acclaimed scientist, presented his findings in a very simple and lucid manner how his team inserted some genes in the crop, rice, plant so that it can tolerate the salty and dry condition and grow without drying. The new crop was transferred to an indigenous seed company to test it further on the larger scale and, if successful, transfer it to farmers for cultivation. However, due to broader opposition to genetically modified organisms (GMO) technologies the field trial could not see the light of the day.

The concerned audience put forth few relevant questions regarding the various social and economic issues associated with GMO debate. As has been stated earlier at different platforms, per se the GMO technique itself is not bad and anything which comes out for public use is tested on many scientific parameters and has to pass many controls and regulations. If the products pass all these regulations and controls and found to be safe for public use then only it is, and should be, released in public domain. The same is true of any technology that has potential for general use.

Then, why these crops should be treated any differently? In pharmaceutical sector as well, the drugs are tested and trial are conducted at various levels for its safety and efficacy and if found safe on all counts then only it is released and allowed for public use. If, however, it turns out to be not safe or have serious side effects even after the release, it is quickly and completely withdrawn.

Can’t the same be done for GMOs? The governments all over the world should devise proper regulations and controls rather than banning this technology. They should allow the improved crop varieties with increased yield and nutritional values so that world food and nutrition security is assured. By public funding of the research, new crop varieties can be made accessible and affordable to the poorest of the farmers.

Indeed, science has the answers to our new and emerging problems, it is up to us how we communicate it to our public, the end user, to enhance the understanding and acceptance and utilize it for the betterment of humanity.

Diabetes - Prevention and Management by Awareness - Part 2

Continuing from the part-1 of this series where we learned the types of diabetes, how they develop and what are the risk factors (link below). In this part, 2nd and last in this series, we will learn how diabetes harms us, is it just the increased glucose or it means something else as well.

http://simplefiedscience.blogspot.in/2014/01/diabetes-prevention-and-management-by.html

Come to think of it, how diabetes harms our body is yet another area where general population is found misinformed and misguided. There is much more than sugar in the urine, sweating, trembling of hands and legs, and usual anxiety in diabetes. The increased glucose level in the blood creates havoc for the cells in our body. It deregulates the normal metabolism and function of the organs including liver, heart, kidney, eyes, brain, lungs, blood capillaries and their cells.

Even though our cells are being severely affected and damaged by increased sugar in the blood, we do not realize this until it is too late. Initially, in type 2 diabetes, with little increase in the blood sugar our body tries to adjust by increasing the insulin level. Slowly, it reaches a point where even several fold increase in insulin, hyper-insulinemia, is also not effective to down regulate glucose level. And because insulin also helps in increased fatty acid synthesis, cell growth and many other physiological role, the enhanced levels of insulin may expose the body to many other pathological conditions such as metabolic deregulation, obesity, heart diseases, cancer and so on.

Image curtesy: http://www.lef.org/

 

After a while insulin level tapers down leading to full-blown diabetes where there is no regulation of blood glucose, whatsoever. At this stage gluco-meter readings come more than 400mg/dL.

The vessels that carry the blood get affected first leading to macro- and micro-angiopathy including endothelial dysfunction, arteriosclerosis and angiogenesis, neuropathy leading to loss in sensation and nerve conduction, nephropathy leading to kidney failure, occulopathy such as diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and cataract development in eye lens. Besides these, the frequent glucose up-regulation (hyperglycemia) and down-regulation (hypoglycemia) creates problem to the brain functioning leading to hallucinations, disorientation, depression and other problems.

Cartoon curtesy: oldsailor2007.blogspot.com

 

Although early diagnosis would lead to better management of the diabetes, being older or newer disease is not as important as how well or poorly it has been managed. Even if diabetes is diagnosed early, if not managed well with proper diet, exercise and healthy lifestyle, the patients suffer more mortality and morbidity.

To be a diabetes free society it is as much an individual problem as a social problem. Many epidemiological studies indicate that society plays greater role in how and which disease spreads in its people.

Image curtesy: (Diabetics Friends Society) http://youngleaders.idf.org/

 

If a society has good attitude towards healthy eating and living, and educational and awareness programs to educate its people, the individuals could benefit and protect themselves from many diseases, including diabetes.

Image Curtesy: www.h3daily.com/

 

What is good eating and living attitude? To recognize how much calorie one needs to stay active and fit, to know which food has roughly how much calories, to be aware that in the comfort and luxury seeking society physical activity is equally or rather highly important factor to stay well and free of diseases. Individual eating and living approach will have better effect on overall behavior of the society towards how it protects its people and tackles the lifestyle diseases such as obesity and diabetes.

 

Image curtesy:http://lankaspice.wordpress.com

Thus, next time when you see someone reacting to high glucose level in a random blood test in disbelief, anguish, anxiety, worry and other emotional expressions, you know what we must do as an individual and as a society!

Diabetes - Prevention and Management by Awareness - Part 1

Can you visualize the response of a ‘healthy’ person when he finds out in a random blood test that his blood glucose is elevated? It is initially disbelief, anguish, anxiety, worry and mix of many other emotional expressions! In a few days, however, many of these feelings and expression vanish except the few ones which appear and disappear depending upon family and peer pressure regarding consuming a particular type of food or not.

Image Curtesy: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

This is as much concern we have about the condition that is called ‘diabetes’ and how we take care of our selves after becoming a patient of diabetes. The little knowledge or rather lack of it regarding the high glucose condition in blood and how to respond to it and regulate it makes many people prone to becoming diabetics besides the early diagnosis in random tests. In addition to high glucose level, one must notice the symptoms as well which indicate towards the diabetic condition, some of which are mentioned in the cartoon below.

Image Source:blog.sterileshoe. com

According to International Diabetes Federation’s ‘Diabetes Atlas’, there are 382 million people suffering from diabetes globally and this number is likely to increase to nearly 600 million by 2035, which is alarming. Initially, diabetes considered a disease of rich and affluent, but now 80% of patients presently live in poor – or – middle-income nations. China and India are on the top of the chart with 98 and 65 millions sufferers, respectively. Majority of the patients are from active work force between the ages 40-60 years.

Irony is that most of these cases are preventable and/or manageable. But the lack of right education, resources and awareness plays key role in increasing the incidence of diseases. Thus, knowledge of the disease and awareness about how to prevent or delay it or live with it subsequent to diagnosis is crucial factors in fighting with this global health menace.

Image Source: helpingdoc.com

Diabetes (type 1, 2 or gestational), sugar or high glucose condition, by whatever names you may know it, the common factor is increased blood glucose level even though the causes may differ from person to person.

In type 1 diabetes, the pancreas does not secret insulin, a hormone that regulates the level of glucose in blood. In type 2 diabetes, either insulin is not secreted by pancreas or if secreted it fails to function due to various reasons, one of them being insulin resistance. Insulin resistance develops due to many reasons, and obesity is one of the reasons. The gestational diabetes is a specific condition where some women develop diabetes like condition during the third trimester of their pregnancy due to increase levels of estrogen hormone. Metabolically, hormones estrogen and insulin work in opposition to each other.

Gestational diabetes, although in many cases disappears after delivery, in few cases it remains and leads to type 2 diabetes. The relation ship between the two is however not very clearly known at present.

In all these cases the insulin is either not formed or is not functional, and thus is not able to control the glucose level. So main culprit here is insulin.

Image Source: medimoon.com

Insulin is a hormone that helps the body organs like liver, muscle and adipose tissue take up glucose from the blood after the meal. In a healthy person this is the way that carbohydrate we consume as food or drink is channeled to these organs where they are stored and utilized as and when needed by the body.

Diabetes develops from our careless lifestyle and food habits. As physical activities get narrowed down due to conveniences created by extraordinary technological advances in recent years, body’s energy requirement has drastically decreased. On the other hand our meals have become heavy, nutritious, rich in calorie and increased consumption of such food quickly makes us obese. 

Consumption of more food than the body requires for daily activities and maintenance, will lead to storage in body, which slowly but steadily results in obesity.

Image Source: cheftimothymoore.com

Obesity is an unhealthy state as has been proven scientifically. It creates a chronic inflammatory condition in the body which acts as breeding ground for many diseases such as cancer, asthma and cardiovascular diseases, and also creates conditions like insulin resistance, which leads to diabetes.

Thus, what we eat, how we eat, when we eat and how we utilized what we have eaten determine and plays important role in our health as well as diseases. Basically, we become what we consume as our food. Personal and social eating behaviors decidedly play role in what and how much we consume. People often end up eating in excess due to individual temptation as well as family and peer pressure. Tendency to convince the self or persuade the other that one day of splurge will not matter much often lead to overeating. One incidence of indiscipline in eating makes one prone to splurge often, which deteriorates the health and leads to obesity and disease development.     

Image Source: thesymptomofdiabetes.org

Although some people may be genetically predisposed to develop diabetes, but awareness and vigilant dietary habit can help delay the disease development and can certainly help manage the disease and prevent health deterioration.

Gut microbes linked with obesity and weight gain!

If you are obese and wondering how did you accumulated all that weight, well you could blame it to the bacteria living in your gut.

A new research has shown that inbred germ-free mice quickly gained weight when given gut bacteria derived from obese human twins than those mice which received gut bacteria from the lean twins. Scientists tested at least four such human twin pairs-derived gut microbes in the mice which all received the same kind and amount of the food.

Image curtsy: http://blog.fooducate.com/ 

The study suggests that the gut microbiota, which include plethora of microbes such as bacteria, fungi, archea living in the intestine, can affect the metabolism and thus weight gain.

Scientist know that humans and microbes live in close association with each other, so much so that in number our body harbors far more microbial cells, nearly 100 trillion, than our own cells, in the ratio of 1 to 10. Although these numbers may look frightening to a layman but they actually live in a mutually beneficial relations with our body.

Some of them live as commensals - living but not causing any harm, symbiotic –mutually helping each other and some of them may live as pathogens, causing harm such as well known pathogenic diseases.

It is therefore logical that if so many organisms are in or on us, they may also affect how we function as an organism, they should then also affect our metabolism, so to say.

And they do! It is known that any disturbances in our intestinal environment could lead to the growth of harmful microbes which may lead to chronic inflammatory diseases including obesity, metabolic disorders and infections.

Image Curtsy: spreadshirt.com

Scientist have shown earlier that an antibiotic-resistant gut bacteria, Clostridium difficile, known to affect and killing thousands in America, can be treated by transplanting microbiota from a healthy individual into an infected persons gut.

Scientists have also shown that the gut microbes also amend our immune system which helps us identify the foreign pathogens, antigens and harmful substances and eradicate them. The increasing cases of allergic and autoimmune disease in the developed countries are arguably believed to be related with disturbance in microbial habitat, our body, due to the hygienic living, leading to emergence of “hygiene hypothesis” to explain these increased incidences.

Previously, scientists have also experimentally shown that when the intestinal flora of the lean mice was given to the obese mice, they successfully controlled and decreased the body weight in obese mice. 

The study led by Jeffrey I. Gordon at Washington University in St. Louis, MO found that when mice with the lean microbiota were made to cohabitate with mice having obese microbiota much before they gained weight, and found that the populations of bacteria in the obese-type mice changed to those of their lean cage-mates, and that their weight did not increase as well. It is known that mice eat each other’s faeces, so this allowed the replacement of ‘obese’ microbiota, but this migration was unidirectional and microbiota from obese mice did not colonize in the lean mice gut.

Image Curtsy: www.vaccinationnews.com

However, interestingly enough, scientist also discovered that besides this there is strong correlation between the diet we take and how the gut microbes behave. When the researchers fed the mice a low fat diet rich in fruit and vegetables, the gut microbes from lean mice migrated to those with the obese type. But, when a high-fat diet low in fruits and vegetable was fed to mice, the microbe transfer did not occur and obese-type mice went on to gain weight.

This and many other studies clearly indicate that our relationship with the microbes is very intricate and scientists are unraveling these intricacies slowly but steadily. However, a lot remains to be learnt about various other players including genetics, environment, diet and diseases in the interaction of microbes and our body which benefits as well as harm each other.