Technion researchers were able to show that eliminating old B cells in old mice causes the body to produce young cells in their place. This is how the scientific journal "Blood" reports
Technion researchers were able to show that eliminating old B cells in old mice causes the body to produce young cells in their place. This is reported by the scientific journal "Blood".
"The body's immune system weakens with increasing age, a fact that manifests itself in a significant increase in morbidity among older people and a dramatic decrease in their ability to respond to the components of the vaccine given to them," explains Professor Doron Melamed from the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine at the Technion. "One of the main factors in the immune system is the type B lymphocyte population responsible for the production of antibodies. Many published works have shown that the B-cell population undergoes a significant change with age as a result of a decrease in the body's ability to produce new B-cells and a selection process that results in the accumulation of old B-cells with a limited and reduced ability to respond. Like any aging process in the body, the accepted assumption is that the aging process of the immune system in general and of the B cell population in particular is a process that cannot be stopped and/or reversed. We were able to show for the first time that the aging process can be reversed."
The researchers led by Professor Melamed used old mice and showed that active elimination of the B cell population changes the cellular balance in the body and leads to a chronic lack of these cells. To overcome this deficiency, the bone marrow began to produce B lymphocytes anew at a rate that is no different from that found in young mice. The new and young cells that were created took the place of those that were eliminated and resulted in a significant improvement in the ability of the treated old mice to respond to the vaccine.
"This work shows for the first time that the physiological aging process is a controlled process that can also be reversed, thus raising many questions regarding our understanding of the aging mechanisms that we know," Professor Melamed concludes. "In addition, the work presents a new approach to the restoration of the immune response among the aging population which is being tested these days", he emphasizes.
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Elimination of "old" B cells is done by injections of several antibodies directed against proteins expressed on the cell membrane.
The restoration was not complete: the immune response of the old mice that were "sedated" was only about 40% compared to that of young mice.
It's a shame they only tested the level of one type of antibody (IgG1). It would have been advisable to also test another, no less important type (IgG2a).
The immune response was tested against a synthetic antigen. It would be more interesting to test a reaction against a viral or bacterial antigen, or resistance against infection with a virus or bacteria. This is REAL LIFE.
It is important to note that in old age T lymphocytes also function deficiently.
What Cobinson said!
There is no reason to prevent aging in people
Only in my case it is worthwhile and maybe in a few other cases but certainly not on a large scale
The problem is that most people are annoying and whiny and contribute nothing to humanity and there is no reason to reverse the aging process for them. Otherwise they will howl at you for a few more years.
But did they also live longer than normal mice? It's a shame that this important figure is missing. After all, everything drains there in the end.
The lymphocytes are in the blood, apparently they "just" filtered them
from the blood and return the rest.
Don't get confused. The aging process starts with genetics.
Can someone explain how the old cells were removed?
The question is how will the old B cells be removed from the body? Maybe targeted drugs? Maybe nanotechnological robots?
Wow!
It's amazing.. the fountain of youth beta version... but the change is on the way..!!
Well done!