A
useful breakthrough in understanding cell senescence.
The Newcastle team, working with the University of Ulm in Germany , used a comprehensive "systems biology" approach, involving computer modelling and experiments with cell cultures and genetically modified mice, to investigate why cells become senescent. In this aged state, cells stop dividing and the tissues they make up show physical signs of deterioration, from wrinkling skin to a failing heart.
The research, published by the journal Molecular Systems Biology , shows that when an ageing cell detects serious damage to its DNA - caused by the wear and tear of life - it sends out specific internal signals.
These distress signals trigger the cell's mitochondria , its tiny energy-producing power packs, to make oxidising "free radical" molecules, which in turn tell the cell either to destroy itself or to stop dividing. The aim is to avoid the damaged DNA that causes cancer.
This is more of a confirmation; the FT warns that this will not cause an elixir of eternal life: a gratuitous obeisance to aging and death. I am sure that this was released before, and has not been picked up by Fight Aging.