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Throughout time, humans have sought the secret to staying youthful, with the fabled fountain of youth destined to disappoint those who seek it.
Thankfully, movements toward aging gracefully (or disgracefully, if you so choose) have led the embrace of grey hair, smile lines, and the changing body as we age, but there’s no question that most of us would still prefer our bodies to stay fit and health for as long as possible.
Though good diet, sleep, and both mental and physical exercise have long been known as some of these ‘secrets’ of slowing the aging process, if one thing is for certain it’s that all of us will eventually look, and feel, older.
And there’s so many positives in that; in fact, we are privileged to be able to grow old. With accidents, disease, and indiscriminate warfare taking the lives of babies, children and young people every day, those of us who experience aging, and watch our loved ones grow and thrive around us, are truly lucky to be able to do so.
Nevertheless, aging is something of a mystery – or, at least, it has been up until this point. That’s because new research from a research team in South Korea have discovered not only how the body gradually declines in age, but also a potential way to spot it.
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In the new study, which has been published in the journal Metabolism: Clinical and Experimental, the researchers explain how aging on a cellular level spreads through the body, in particular through the bloodstream.
This is because of something known as the High Mobility Group Box 1 (HMGB1) extracellular senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP) factor. In other words, this particular protein – which is sometimes used in cells to support the structure of DNA, but has several other functions too – can travel through the bloodstream.
One of the other functions of HMGB1 is its involvement in inflammation, reducing a cell’s ability to regenerate, and thus causing affected parts of the body to deteriorate over time.
And in their research, which involved both mice and in lab-based studies, the team proved that HMGB1 can be transported through the bloodstream, leading to the deterioration of a vast array of different cells throughout the body.
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The good news? Well, thanks to this research, the team have not only identified a key facet of the aging process, but this has helped them better understand one possible route to reducing the impacts of age-related tissue disfunction too.
That’s because, in their experiments on mice, the team found that anti-HMGB1 antibodies helped to reduce these impacts, whilst allowing the mice to regenerate muscle more effectively.
This study is groundbreaking, as lead researcher Professor Ok Hee Jeon, from Korea University’s College of Medicine, explained in a statement:
“This study reveals that aging signals are not confined to individual cells but can be systemically transmitted via the blood, with ReHMGB1 acting as a key driver. By blocking this pathway, we were able to restore tissue regenerative capacity, suggesting a promising strategy to treat aging-related diseases.”
While there’s no stopping time, this research suggests there is hope for the future reduction of age-related decline.
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