The fountain of youth? Injecting the BLOOD of young mice into older animals improved memory and learning ability, study finds

Scientists have identified two ingredients in the blood of the young that reverse the ageing process, a study suggests. When blood is taken from young mice and injected into old mice it ‘reversed’ any declines in their brains, the study found. The proteins cause more brain cells to grow, increased the nerve connections between brain cells. The proteins were tested on human brain cells in the lab and found to have a similar effect, helping the cells to grow and increase the number of connections. The findings raise hopes that a potential treatment that can act as a ‘fountain of youth’ and by reversing the effects of dementia. Scroll down for video Young mouse (15-day-old; left) and aged mouse (15-month-old; right) mice used in the experiments. When blood is taken from young mice and injected into old mice it ‘reversed’ any declines in their brains Young mouse (15-day-old; left) and aged mouse (15-month-old; right) mice used in the experiments. When blood is taken from young mice and injected into old mice it ‘reversed’ any declines in their brains The two key proteins that have the rejuvenating effect are thrombospondin-4 THBS4 and SPARC-like protein 1 (SPARCL1). Writing in the journal PNAS , the scientists from Stanford write that the compounds increase the number of synapses – connections between brain cells. In a healthy brain the creation of new synapses balances the loss of old ones, but this process slows as we age, and becomes accelerated in Alzheimer’s disease. Loss of synapses makes it harder to remember things. The authors Kathyln Gan and Thomas Sudhof write: ‘We asked whether young blood is enriched in factors that act directly on neurons to promote synapse formation. ‘We show that serum from young but not old mice indeed directly boosts synapse formation in cultured […]

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