Scientists reverse aging-associated skin wrinkles and hair loss in a mouse model

https://www.uab.edu/news/research/item/9607-scientists-reverse-aging-associated-skin-wrinkles-and-hair-loss-in-a-mouse-model

by anastalaz • 8 years ago

139 51 8 years ago

uab.edu

Nasrudith• 8 years ago

Another case of "fixing the problem we created in the mice in the first place". While good for reproducability and analyzing possible root causes it is frustratingly disappointing.

I would really want to see is the process on actual senior lab mice - that would highlight other factors untreated and how transferrable it is to the general case for mice - let alone humans. If open-ended trial mice reach unprecedented ages that would have major implications.

theothermkn3• 8 years ago

I could not disagree more. As the article states, and this meshes with my layperson's understanding, mitochondrial malfunction is a key facet of aging. While we strongly suspected the role of mitochondria, being able to turn them on and off and observe their effect really cements our understanding that, yes, they are involved in the ways we think they are. Further cause for optimism is that toggling the mitochondria toggled other age-associated behaviors in the mice.

One of the pillars of SENS is allotropic expression of a subset of mitochondrial genes in the nucleus, to get those genes away from the mitochondrial furnace. We can speculate that other mitochondrial gene therapies may emerge from work like this.

I can't be disappointed by this progress!

TheSpiceIsLife• 8 years ago

In this context, is SENS Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence?

reasonattlm• 8 years ago

No, this really is breaking the mice, not inducing something that looks like SENS-relevant damage in mitochondria. The details matter.

Many means of breaking cell biology can produce things that look superficially like accelerated aging in at least some ways. That doesn't mean it is aging: given that aging is widespread tissue dysfunction, anything that causes widespread tissue dysfunction can have overlapping phenotypes, but that doesn't mean it has anything to do with normal aging. DNA repair deficiency is the usual example - something that isn't all that apparent in normal aging, in comparison to the models in which DNA repair machinery is missing or broken.

So, similarly, pulling the rug out from under mitochondrial function can be done in countless ways that have very little to do with what happens in aging. I think the onus is still on these researchers to demonstrate that the method they have chosen has much of anything to do with aging per se.

jgalvez4• 8 years ago

Ray Peat proven right once again.

chuinard• 8 years ago

He's the one doctor whose stuff I've read that I think make most sense. You get a lot of people saying he's crazy, though. Wonder if anyone on HN has ever had any success reversing hair loss? The ultimate hack, if you ask me.

davymac• 8 years ago

Yeah, lots of stuff on Quackwatch about him. Not exactly flattering. I’ll pass after reading that stuff. Broken clocks being right twice a day and all.

jgalvez4• 8 years ago

Some people get it, some people don't. When confronted with claims that drive the no-carb/keto people crazy, they resort to bashing him. I'd recommend following Danny Roddy, Chris Masterjohn and CowsEatGrass, and also look for the On The Back of a Tiger documentary which is due to be released soon.

jgalvez4• 8 years ago

And yes, plenty of people have had success regrowing hair following Peat's principles - aspirin, high CO2, high carbs, little to zero polyunsaturated, moderate saturated, (thyroid, pregnenolone, progesterone, vitamin A+B supplementation) etc.

The Peaty things I've discovered that made the most dramatic difference in my life were colagen and methylene blue. My stamina, focus and overall health improved immensely after I started using 10gtt methylene blue and 2tbsp colagen in my morning shakes. Oh, and of course, RED LIGHT!

For anyone interested, look for the "Ray Peat Forum" (community organized) and the "Ray Peat Inspired" videos on YouTube.

theprotocol• 8 years ago

Can you elaborate? What specific hypothesis of his does this confirm? Thanks.

2_listerine_pls• 8 years ago

What a time to be a mouse

sschueller• 8 years ago

I think we have pretty much cured every disease a mouse could possibly have including aging...

Joboman555• 8 years ago

Look at the picture of the mouse - it’s not aging, it’s dying. Yes, they “reverse” the condition, but only by the cessation of giving these little guys poison (doxycycline, a harsh antibiotic). This could have been called “high doses of doxycycline almost kills mice.”

1996• 8 years ago

Yes, they “reverse” the condition, but only by the cessation of giving these little guys poison (doxycycline, a harsh antibiotic). This could have been called “high doses of doxycycline almost kills mice.”

You clearly do not understand how triggering genes with antibiotics work (like Ampicillin in the old days).

danieltillett• 8 years ago

The doxycycline is being given at low dose and has no direct effect on the mouse. It is being used to switch on and off the gene of interest - introduce a gene under expression control with doxycycline. This is a common way of doing gene regulation experiments in mice.

pandasun• 8 years ago

doxycycline, a harsh antibiotic

Do you have any sources for it being harsh? I'm curious because I've been on antibiotics for 2 years (yes really) and this is the one I tolerate the best.

GordonS• 8 years ago

I was also on doxycycline for over 2 years, and barring a slightly dodgy tummy for the first 48 hours (fairly typical for antibiotics), I didn't notice any adverse affects. It did transpire that my doctor had 'forgotten' I was still on it though (I was only meant to be on it for 6 months!), so I did wonder if there were any adverse affects of taking it for that long!

thermodynthrway9• 8 years ago

Hair loss cure has been around for a while, at least for MPB. Been taking finasteride for almost a decade and haven't lost any hair. Most guys are scared away by rare but serious side effects. But most of the problem seems to be getting guys to take pills regularly at all

WilliamEdward• 8 years ago

Finasterade supposedly doesn't reverse hair loss, it prevents it.

ravenstine2• 8 years ago

That's what seems to be the case with any existing hair loss products; if you have nearly invisible wisps of hair left, minoxidil and finasteride will rejuvenate those and prevent further hair loss. Not really a cure. If too much hair loss has occurred, you're kinda screwed unless you go the transplant route, which has its own problems.

I do hope for an actual hair loss cure, and I'd pay thousands for it. People treat bald people really different and don't even realize it. Not in necessarily a "bad" way, not like a second-class citizen, but I think bald guys are slightly scarier to the average person, especially if the guy shaves it or keeps it short. Obviously they are also less attractive on average unless they've got the muscle proportion and the jawline to go with it.

It's not all bad since it also means that I'm no longer treated like a "young man" by anyone. But when I wear a hat or a beanie and people don't know that I'm bald, they're a much nicer and women come up to me a lot more. It's like night and day. At least that means there's nothing wrong with my face! :)

thermodynthrway9• 8 years ago

Same could be said about antibiotics or basically any drug we've discovered. Just like antibiotics being useless if you wait so long the infection is killing you.

It's not surprising to me that finasteride doesn't bring back hair you've been losing for years.

It prevents hairloss extremely effectively. To the point that 90% of men losing their hair wouldn't if they got on it early enough.

Many men say it's not a cure because it doesn't bring back dead hair but I don't think that's true. It's like saying antibiotics aren't a cure because they can't bring back the dead. If I lost a limb to gangrene I wouldn't expect antibiotics to grow it back, so I don't get why some guys expect a hairloss drug to grow back hair that's been gone for years.

anysidesthough• 8 years ago

Experienced any side effects yourself? Been putting it off but I’m probably going to have to give in and go on it soon.

albacur• 8 years ago

I took finasteride for about 4 years. I didn’t experience any immediate side effects but gradually I lost interest in sex and got sexual side effects. Things did not go back to normal after discontinuing the drug. This was in my late 20s.

It’s a tricky subject because I can’t know for certain if the drug caused the side effects, but I was an otherwise healthy young man. Many men apparently take finasteride for years without significant side effects, but on the other hand, I don’t know how many men who have been affected are willing to discuss it openly.

thermodynthrway9• 8 years ago

Zero. Been single for years but my volition. All works down there same as it did a decade ago when I started

MrDam• 8 years ago

Tread cautiously. I experienced some issues achieving an erection and feeling stimulation after several days on it. Needless to say I stopped after two weeks. Fortunately I didn't experience any permanent side effects. It's too bad; I really wanted to stop the full front assault!

tomcam• 8 years ago

According to your description of the side effects, a full frontal assault most certainly occurred ;)

thermodynthrway9• 8 years ago

Like I said, it's been close to a decade on it so no worries. Interest in banging has waned slightly but I'm not young anymore either

torstenvl• 8 years ago

Finasteride can help, but this is far from a solved problem. Trust me.

brandonmenc2• 8 years ago

Hair loss cure has been around for a while

Strongly disagree.

When I was a teenager I had very thick, curly hair. Now I'm bald. Unless the cure involves reactivating my dormant hair follicles into growing back exactly what I had when I was 15, it's imo not a cure.

Right now the alternatives are: shave my head, or risk potential scarring and weird hair pattern from a transplant, or take a pill forever and sacrifice boners for some wispy strands that I'll be self-conscious about all day long.

So for now, I'm shaving my head. Call me when there's like, a single-application stem-cell therapy.

Latteland3• 8 years ago

Ha, I am in the same boat. There's hair/scalp therapy and then regular therapy. I am not my (lack) of hair.

thermodynthrway9• 8 years ago

I don't think the options are so bleak. Serious side effects from finasteride are something like 1% of users. I've been taking it longer than I can remember with zero side effects except I haven't lost any hair.

Most recent studies show around 90% effectiveness at preventing further loss.

Just because something can't turn back the clock doesn't mean it isn't a cure. Surely penicillin has almost 0% cure rate if you delay taking it for an infection for a few years.

thermodynthrway9• 8 years ago

Replying to myself because I'm getting the usual flak from guys that didn't take it.

It's about 90% effective at preventing further loss. If you don't consider that a cure I don't know what you're looking for.

Just because you didn't take it before everything fell out doesn't mean it's any less effective or not a cure. If you take it indefinitely you will not lose hair almost 90% of the time.

That's a better cure rate than antibiotics for some conditions like tuberculosis or antivirals for something like hep C.

The side effect profile is extremely safe too. Less than 5% of men had any side effects at all in the largest trail with 1000+ men. That makes finasteride safer than most antibiotics even.

If I didn't take antibiotics until my leg fell off from infection I wouldn't expect them to grow it back. People confound a hair loss cure with something that regenerates lost hair. Regeneration of any kind has been frustratingly outside the bounds of human ability forever

ianai• 8 years ago

It sounds like only a marginal “cure”. Taking medication for the rest of your life is not something to take lightly. As a migrainer, if I had to decide between medications due to interactions, I’d always choose treating migraines over treating alpoecia. Adding a medication long term decreases a patients ability to choose treatments in the future.

phyller• 8 years ago

The article title should read, "Scientists able to temporarily induce some symptoms of aging in young mice". If they could have reversed symptoms of aging in actual old mice they would have done it.

amriksohata• 8 years ago

We hear of these kind of studies time and time again yet never see anything materialise for humans.

Scientists reverse aging-associated skin wrinkles and hair loss in a mouse model

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