Jeanne Chrisanthopoulos
Science Current Event
Due Monday, April 4th, 2016
Removing worn-out cells makes mice live longer and prosper
In a recent study, by Mayo Clinic researchers, it has been shown that killing worn out cells helps middle aged mice live longer and healthier lives. The worn out cells are called “senescent cells;” they are cells that no longer divide to do their usual jobs, but instead they pump out inflammatory chemicals that can damage surrounding tissues and stimulate aging. Rodents living without these cells has increased the median life span in mice by around 24-27 percent. The researchers found that rodents with removed senescent cells have also displayed improved heart and kidney function. These results are interesting because if humans react in the same way then a completely new way of treating aging could arise. Other prospective anti aging treatments would require people to continuously take drugs, but, instead, zapping the senescent cells could possibly revert the clock in aging people who have poor health. To eliminate these cells a cancer biologist of the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota has suggested “making the cells commit suicide.” This would work by hooking up a gene that kills the cell to a protein p16 that builds up in senescent cells, so that whenever p16 forms the suicide protein would also appear. “The suicide protein needs a partner chemical to actually kill cells, though,” so the researchers injected the chemical in some older mice and a placebo chemical in other old mice. This experiment lead researchers to see that the cells were easier to kill in some organs than others. The colon and liver senescent cells were not killed, but age related issues in the eyes, fat, heart, and kidney were slowed.
I liked this article because aging is a huge issue medically. If there is a way to slow down the effects of aging in muscles and joints, it must be explored. However I found it impractical that injections and shots would need to occur frequently, so it is evident that a drug would need to be created that could kill the senescent cells from humans. Also we do not know the side-effects of killing these cells in humans because in certain cases senescent cells have been shown to be needed for wound healing, so without these cells medical complications could arise in the elderly. According to studies, mice without many senescent cells could not heal quickly or properly, but once the treatment of killing the cells was halted they healed fine. I think these facts are important to consider. The downside to this article was that it was quite repetitive and focused only on senescent cells. It was interesting to see how the the senescent cells play a role in aging, but it was disappointing when I realized they never mentioned anything about other factors that may contribute to aging. I appreciated how the article defined many terms and presented the positive and negative results of the article. It made me ponder the life-changing medical techniques that may be available when I am older. Currently it is unfortunate to see our grandparents struggle to walk and or have mental illnesses like dementia. This is why I chose this article: to see if there is a “cure” for the struggles elderly people face daily.
Saey, Tina Hesman. "Removing Worn-out Cells Makes Mice Live Longer and Prosper." Science
News. N.p., 3 Feb. 2016. Web. 03 Apr. 2016.
Great review Jeanne! You gave a good summary-- it was cohesive and easy to understand, while also giving all the important information and covering all the points of the article. Additionally, your explanations were well written. I really understood the process of how scientists were able to manipulate the cells in order to attempt to lengthen the lifespan of middle aged rats. Another great point of your review was the second paragraph: it was a great addition that raised relevant concerns if this were able to be adapted for human use.
ReplyDeleteAlthough your review was extremely strong, to make it even stronger I would add another quote from a scientist. Getting an expert’s opinion on a topic is always a good idea because it increases the credibility of the reviewer.
The most interesting thing to me in this article was the the mice treated in this study (by deleting their unnecessary dead genes) were able to live longer. If this discovery can be adapted to help humans, so many people, especially those with diseases like Alzheimer’s or dementia, could be helped.
Saey, Tina Hesman. "Removing Worn-out Cells Makes Mice Live Longer and Prosper." Science
News. N.p., 3 Feb. 2016. Web. 03 Apr. 2016.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/removing-worn-out-cells-makes-mice-live-longer-and-prosper?mode=topic&context=87
This article was presented in a very manageable way. The ideas were not dragged out into some wordy and boring explanation. This brevity made the information very easy to digest since it was put into an understandable nutshell. Also, you did a good job of separating the facts from her own opinion which gives the reader an opportunity to formulate their own ideas and opinions. Lastly, you did a very good job of picking out pieces of information that would obviously draw the reader in and encapsulate their interest without boring them with facts.
ReplyDeleteWhile this summary was well written, there we certain aspects that could have used tweaking. For instance, it would have been nice to have known a general timeline. How long has it taken to get to this point? How long will it be before this technology will be tested on humans? Secondly, it would have been nice to have seen more direct quoting from the article to make the information seem more reliable.
It is always amazing to see how far science has come. Seeing advancements like this make today seem like some future out of a science fiction novel. The possibilities for technology that could lengthen life and remove damaged tissues seem limitless.
Saey, Tina Hesman. "Removing Worn-out Cells Makes Mice Live Longer and Prosper." Science
News. N.p., 3 Feb. 2016. Web. 03 Apr. 2016.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/removing-worn-out-cells-makes-mice-live-longer-and-prosper?mode=topic&context=87
I read Jeanne’s review of the article “Removing Worn-out Cells Makes Mice Live Longer and Prosper.” Jeanne gave a concise summary of the information presented in the article, and made it easy to understand. She left out extraneous facts, and explained the study well. She was able to help me understand the process that scientists performed to kill old cells, and how the treatment of these cells can be related to how we deal with cancer cells. Jeanne raised good questions about the practicality of applying these treatments to humans. She suggested that a drug would be better than the current shots because they subjects have to be injected frequently.
ReplyDeleteI would have liked to know if there were any more side effects other than a decreased ability to heal infections. It would be interesting to know if there are any other studies that are similar to this one, and if scientist plan to test this method for longevity on humans any time soon.
I chose to read this article because I know about how shortened telomeres are a sign of aging, and to see if telomeres were a factor in this study. I am still skeptical of the application of these findings to humans because I feel like often times things that we test on mice are never tested on humans.