Fountain of Youth Here?

A recent study out of Stanford University, hints to the possibility. Resurrecting an old experiment for the 1950’s, scientist merged the blood vessels of a young rat with the same vessel in a much older rat. Allowing the blood of the younger rat to flow through the older rat and visa-versa.

After 5 weeks, the team of scientist found increased neuron activity on the older rat. Also, the older rats muscle and liver tissue healed and grew at the same rate of the youthful rat. Scientist were able to isolate a specific protein called GDF11 as one of the components to this youthful regress.

Rats given GDF11 through injection, showed improved heart muscle activity, but not to the same extent as to the rats that shared the same blood vessels. This leaves open the probability that there must be other components involved other than GDF11 alone.

These experiments are extraordinary, in the fact that not only is there the possibility that we can slow down the aging process, but perhaps we may even be able to reverse it. Actually becoming younger.

As with all new studies, more experimentation is needed, and eventually human trials would need to be successful before this could become a practice. But if successful, could we be on the verge of dramatically extending the human life span? And if so, what new moral and ethical questions would we need to resolve.

Fountain of Youth