Everything must come to an end one day. At one point everything and everyone will die. Mythology features a whole plethora of immortal gods but we can never emulate them.
Or can we?
A Science Daily article talks about researchers from the University of Nottingham have been studying two types of planarians (flatworms), an asexual one and a sexual one. These worms have nearly infinite regenerative abilities, even able to regrow brains. According to the research, it turns out that it has something to do with the stem cells of these worms.
Normally, when stem cells divide they eventually age, which causes them to loss their ability to divide. This aging is caused by shortened telomeres. Telomeres are “caps” at the end of chromosomes and they work like the aglets of a shoelace. Whenever cells divide DNA must be replicated and each time this happens the telomeres shorten. When these telomeres get too short the cell can no longer divide. There is an enzyme called telomerase which can maintain these telomeres. Humans have them, but they are only active during early development.
The research was centered on a planarian version of the gene that controls telomerase. When the gene was turned down, the telomeres of the planarian was shortened. After that, they measure gene activity and telomere length and saw that asexual worms increased the telomerase gene activity considerably when regenerating, which lets them maintain telomere when they make new tissues. However, this increased telomerase activity was not seen in the sexual worms, despite the fact that they are just as regenerative as the asexual worms. The researcher plan on continuing their research on this topic to find just what is going on with the sexual worms.
This research really is a breakthrough. While we might not ever be truly immortal, being able to regenerate body parts could have valuable medicinal application.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120227152612.htm
Posted by Joseph Frimpong Feb 29, 2012 (Group A (2))
It would be fascinating to see what would happen to an adult human if telomerase was somehow reactivated. Would visible signs of aging reverse themselves? At what "point in life" would a person be technically frozen at? It has been the dream of mankind since the beginning of recorded history, and it may be possible that this discovery could ultimately lead to dramatically increased life spans.
ReplyDelete- Jeff Keating (2)
Immortality reminds me of Tuck everlasting and the stream he drank from to become youthful forever. This is fantasy to me. It is scary to think humans could ever or are even trying to being immortal. We weren't born aliens for a reason. It would be cool to be able to regrow limbs and parts of the body that were lost due to disease or war.
DeletePosted By: Jen Silva(3)
Very interesting article! It would be amazing if this research was continued and eventually humans were able to regenerate body parts. If this occurred, it would be a scietific breakthough creating so many options for individiuals with incurable diseases. Within the planarian what exactly sets the sexual and asexual telomeres apart from one another? I find it confusing yet intriguing why the asexual can genreate new body parts yet the sexual cannot.
ReplyDeleteActually, the sexual flatworms can regenerate body parts just as well as the sexual worms. It's just the the telomerase activity wasn't increase for the sexual worms, suggesting that they are using a different method to regenerate.
DeletePosted by Joseph Frimpong
Quite fascinating inst it? This could be a amazing breakthrough for medical achievement. I personally wouldn't mind being able to regenerate a lost body part. I think we all would like to live to old age without injury, and this research sounds like it would certainly be possible. Even if get a crippling injury you could just regenerate yourself. Though there would probably be much controversy over such a practice. Still quite fascinating.
ReplyDeletePosted by Dorian Pillari (c)
I see what you mean about the controversy. I could easily imagine special interest groups defiling regrowth of body parts as unnatural and immoral.
DeletePosted by Joseph Frimpong
Really cool post. Even if the telomere is able to replicate itself and thus never "age" wouldn't it still accumulate a large number of mutations through repeated replication of DNA over an immortal lifespan?
ReplyDeletePosted by Michael Thomas
Your probably right, no method of regulation is 100% perfect. The planarians used in the study most likely have a life span in which they eventually die.
DeletePosted by Joseph Frimpong
It seems to me like even if we could continuously repair body parts, it wouldn't do much to slow the overall aging process. The organs would continue to degenerate and that would necessitate more and more telomere as the organism's long life got longer.
ReplyDeleteRhys Ursuliak
Well the point of telomeres is that the degeneration of them IS the aging process, and my understanding of this article is that they figured out a way to potentially slow down telomere degeneration. So this would in fact slow to stop the aging process. The next problem we would face would be "what do we do with all of this excess humanity". Looks like Newt Gingrich's plan to colonize the moon isn't looking too bad after all...
DeleteMike Selden (C)
It's already possible to grow cells from petrid dishes, so the possibly of regrowing whole body parts it's out of the realm of reality. It'll be the dreams of past scientists that we could possibly be within reach of longer life through cell regeneration. With longer life I'm sure the elite will be ready with flows of resources. But will this breakthrough be reserved for the elite solely, and will this create a possible gap between the rich living for ages while the poor live what we consider now a full life? The future is fascinating the more we discover new things.
ReplyDeletePosted By Andy Zou
I agree with some of the earlier posts. This is an interesting article and unfortunately if this ever happened the rich probably would be the only ones that would get to utilize it. Immortality has always been a thing that everyone would love to see come true. It just doesn't seem that we will ever come close to figuring out this great mystery and it certainly wouldn't be in any of our lifetimes.
ReplyDeletePosted by Nicco Ciccolini