Genetic researchers have reversed signs of ageing in mice by reducing wrinkles and making hair grow back less grey in an unprecedented study.

Researchers at the University of Alabama in Birmingham used an antibiotic to cause ageing by making the mitochondria within cells dysfunction.

As we age mitochondria, the powerhouse of the cell, begin to dysfunction. As mitochondria produce 90 per cent of the energy cells need to survive, the dysfunction can drive age-related diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Scientists caused ageing in the mice by adding the antibiotic doxycycline to their food and water to induce a mutation.

Genetic researchers have reversed signs of ageing in mice by reducing wrinkles and making hair grow back less grey in an unprecedented study

Scientists induced mitochondrial depletion for two months, causing wrinkles and hair loss (centre). After reversing this, the signs of ageing were also reduced (right: same mouse a month later)

Doxycycline effects the enzyme needed to replicate mitochondrial DNA, which depletes supplies and causes them to dysfunction.

After four weeks of being given doxycycline, mice developed grey hair, hair loss, and slowed movements and lethargy. After four to eight weeks, wrinkled skin developed.

These effects could be reversed by stopping doxycycline for a month, allowing depleted mitochondrial DNA to be restored.

Keshav Singh, a professor of genetics in the UAB School of Medicine, said: 'To our knowledge, this observation is unprecedented.'

Keshav Singh, a professor of genetics in the UAB School of Medicine, said: 'To our knowledge, this observation is unprecedented'

Although the removal of doxcycline in mice affected the ageing process in skin, little change was seen in organs, which suggests mitochondria plays a more important role in different areas.

Dr Singh added: 'This mouse model should provide an unprecedented opportunity for the development of preventive and therapeutic drug development strategies to augment the mitochondrial functions for the treatment of aging-associated skin and hair pathology and other human diseases in which mitochondrial dysfunction plays a significant role.'

The use of doxycycline created similar changes to mice skin to both intrinsic - the natural process of ageing - and extrinsic - external factors which influence ageing - in humans.

The skin of mice with the mutation had increased numbers of skin cells, abnormal thickening of the outer layer, dysfunctional hair follicles and increased inflammation that appeared to contribute to skin pathology.

Being able to reverse wrinkles and hair colour through the reversal of mitochondrial dysfunction is 'surprising', according to Dr Singh.

He added: 'It suggests that epigenetic mechanisms underlying mitochondria-to-nucleus cross-talk must play an important role in the restoration of normal skin and hair phenotype.

Scientists can alter and delete memories in mice. Now they say they're decades away from doing the same in humans.

It all began five years ago at MIT when Boston University Neuroscientist Steve Ramirez and his partner Xu Liu found a way to implant a false memory in a mouse's brain. In their study, mice reacted in fear to a stimulus, even though they had never encountered it before -- all thanks to a manufactured implanted memory.

Today, Ramirez and his colleagues are learning how to replace negative memories in mice with positive ones.

Positive memories are created by putting male mice in a cage with female mice, while negative memories are created by putting the mice in a cage rigged with electrical shocks.

Once the mice have been conditioned to react a certain way, Ramirez and his team surgically operated on the mice so that they can stimulate the brain cells associated with the positive and negative memories.

The researchers stimulated the positive memories while the mice were in the electrical shock cage. Amazingly, their behavior completely changed and they did not react in fear like they had previously done.

Essentially, the scientists were able to retrain the mice not to remember their traumatic experiences.

Ramirez and his team aren't the only ones with such findings.

University of Toronto neuroscientist Sheena Josselyn was able to completely eliminate fear memories in mice using a different technique.

She identified specific brain cells associated with fearful memories and made them vulnerable to a specific toxin. When they injected the mice with the toxin, those specific cells died, and the mice were no longer afraid.

"It's only a small portion of these cells, and the memory was essentially erased," she told National Geographic.

While human brains are much more complex and advanced than mice brains, Ramirez and Josselyn say their research could be used on people in the future.

"The human brain is a Lamborghini, and we're working with a tricycle, but the wheels still spin the same," Ramirez said. "Traumatic memories could be rewritten with positive information."

But not everyone will be able to have access to memory-altering technology. Experts say the techniques could be helpful for combat veterans who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

"The idea of manipulating memories can and should be used in a clinical context," Ramirez said.

He believes altering memories like water, it isn't inherently good or bad -- it just depends on the context.

"Something that elemental can either be used for nourishing your body, or it can be used for waterboarding. If water can be used for good and bad, anything can be used for good and bad," he says.


(cbn.com)