A team of scientists managed to engineer human skin cells to make them 30 years younger. Skin cells reset to a much younger state in certain molecular measurements.
While it is still very early in the research, this technique could play a major role in the quest to produce a rejuvenating drug capable of undoing some of the damaging consequences of an aging body.
What makes this study so important is that skin cells are reprogrammed to become biologically younger while retaining some of the functions that make them skin cells.
The process used here is based on the work of Nobel Prize winner Shinya Yamanaka in 2007, in which Yamanaka was able to transform normal cells with certain functions into stem cells that could develop into any type. This means, however, that the cell will lose its specific identity.
"Our understanding of aging at the molecular level has evolved over the past decade, giving rise to techniques that allow researchers to measure age-related biological changes in human cells," said biologist Diljeet Gill of the Babraham Institute in the UK and lead author of the study.
"We were able to apply this to our experiments to determine the extent of reprogramming that our new method achieves," he said.
The new method, dubbed 'maturation phase transient reprogramming', worked 13 days faster, compared to the Yamanaka team's experiment which took 50 days and stopped before stem cell status was reached. This process allows the cell to retain its original identity and function.
Various measures, including the epigenetic clock (a chemical label indicating age) and the transcriptome (the reading of genes produced by cells), were used to confirm that skin cells had indeed been 'reset' within three decades of biological age.
Collagen production (in red) is restored in cells after reprogramming. Photo: Fátima Santos, Babraham . Institute
Collagen production is the primary function of skin cells, and the young cells observed are still pumping these materials out. In fact, they produce more collagen than skin cells that have not undergone the 'reprogramming' process, and are showing signs of being able to heal wounds more quickly.
"We have proven that cells can be rejuvenated without losing their function and rejuvenation appears to restore some function to old cells," Gill said.
"The fact that we also saw reversal of aging indicators in disease-associated genes holds great promise for the future of this study."
To date, scientists do not fully understand how the mechanism behind transient maturation phase reprogramming works, but they do think that certain important parts of the genome, which help control cell identity, may be able to escape reprogramming.
There are a plethora of age-related health issues that must be addressed as you age, from heart disease to Alzheimer's. Further in the future, the research described here could be useful in finding ways to address this evolving problem.
One of the next steps would be to try and apply the techniques used here to other cell types in the body, and make sure the process is completely safe before going into clinical trials.
"Ultimately, we may be able to identify rejuvenating genes without reprogramming, and specifically target those genes to reduce the effects of aging," said molecular biologist Wolf Reik of the Babraham Institute.
"This approach promises to be valuable discoveries that can open up amazing therapeutic horizons."