THE MOUSE THAT DIED OF YOUNG AGE

The black mouse on the screen sprawls on its belly, back hunched, blinking but otherwise motionless. Its organs are failing. It appears to be days away from death. It has progeria, a disease of accelerated aging, caused by a genetic mutation. It is only three months old. Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Technology review (1998) 2019-09, Vol.122 (5), p.24-29
Main Author: Hayasaki, Erika
Format: Magazinearticle
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Aging
Aging (natural)
Animals
Arthritis
Blinking
Deoxyribonucleic acid
DNA
DNA methylation
Embryos
Epigenetics
Gene expression
Laboratories
Life expectancy
Medical research
Muscular dystrophy
Mutation
Organs
Reptiles & amphibians
Researchers
Seat belts
Skin
Stem cells
Tumors
Vaccines
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Summary:The black mouse on the screen sprawls on its belly, back hunched, blinking but otherwise motionless. Its organs are failing. It appears to be days away from death. It has progeria, a disease of accelerated aging, caused by a genetic mutation. It is only three months old. Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte, a Spaniard who works at the Gene Expression Laboratory at San Diego's Salk Institute for Biological Studies believes epigenetic reprogramming may prove to be an "elixir of life" that will extend human life span significantly. Life expectancy has increased more than twofold in the developed world over the past two centuries. Thanks to childhood vaccines, seat belts, and so on, more people than ever reach natural old age. But there is a limit to how long anyone lives, which Izpisúa Belmonte says is because our bodies wear down through inevitable decay and deterioration. "Aging," he writes, "is nothing other than molecular aberrations that occur at the cellular level.
ISSN:1099-274X
2158-9186