Scientists find gene key to giving mice young-looking skin

[Al-khiyal]

November 30, 2007 -- Scientists have found a way to reverse the aging process in skin, restoring thinning tissue to a thicker, more youthful state in two weeks.

The advance, which works by manipulating a master control gene in cells that changes the level of activity of other genes, has so far been demonstrated only in mice. Researchers say that if it can be translated to people it might help older people recover more quickly from injury or boost organ function during illness.

But they played down suggestions that the technique could be used as a "fountain of youth", as the targeted gene also plays a role in the immune system and cancer. They fear that manipulating it could have longer-term and potentially disastrous side effects. "You might get a longer life span, but at the expense of something else," said Howard Chang, assistant professor of dermatology at Stanford University in California, who led the study. "Here we show that ageing in mouse skin can be reversed by blocking a single gene ... we found a pretty striking reversal to that of the young skin."

The discovery adds weight to the notion that the ageing process is more than simply the accumulation of life's knocks. Previous studies have shown ageing is a genetically programmed process that can be slowed in mammals by a calorie-restricted diet or exercise. In more invasive studies young mice had their circulatory systems surgically connected to older animals. The result was that the aging organs of the older animals were rejuvenated.

"Ageing is not just a result of wear and tear, but is also the consequence of a continually active genetic program that might be blocked for improving human health," said Chang. "The finding that aged skin can be 'rejuvenated' by a genetic intervention late in life implies that the ageing program is plastic, and therefore can be potentially manipulated to decrease the deleterious effects of aging."

His team identified genes involved in the ageing process by looking for those which were expressed at different levels in young and old animals. They also did the same exercise for human genes, to try to ensure that the finding would be relevant to people. This exercise threw up 14 candidates, of which the strongest was a master control gene called NF-kappa-B. It controls other target genes involved in the immune system, inflammation and cell death.

The team blocked the action of NF-kappa-B in skin cells in two-year-old mice. After two weeks they examined the genes active in the animals' skin and found that the genetic profile was very similar to the skin of newborn mice: it was thicker, and more cells appeared to be dividing.

The team cannot be sure that NF-kappa-B has the same effect in humans. But the human version lies in a part of our genome that has been shown in previous studies to be associated with human longevity. The results are published in the journal Genes and Development.

A similar short-term intervention to switch off NF-kappa-B might be possible to speed up recovery from injury, but the team warns that altering it for longer periods might have unexpected consequences. Because it controls genes in many locations with various functions the researchers worry it could lead to cancer.

Nina Goad, for the British Association of Dermatologists, welcomed the research. "This research looks very interesting. Targeting of gene therapy to skin is still very difficult, but this may provide some new avenues of research that will be of value to wound healing following skin trauma, or disfiguring skin cancer surgery. However, the researchers' caveats about the unforeseen consequences of manipulating genes that play a role in many cells are most important and add a strong element of caution."

Scientists find gene key to giving mice young-looking skin

[nesreen]

Just heard about this during this morning news , cant wait !!!!

[Bent_Bladi]

oh my God... what will they discover next...

i hope this doesn't come with any dangerous side effects...

bas this is weird... if we could reverse the aging process - make ourselves look younger, then the people who can't afford this process or don't think it's right or something will be left out as the "old and wrinkled" and the age discrimination we're experiencing now will TOTALLY multiply.

i have one rule when it comes to this stuff - don't mess w/ mother nature... i swear to you, she's equipt with the most powerful butt smackin' shibshib there is... and she's not afraid to use it