In a glimpse of what could become a future Black Mirror episode, scientists have hooked the circulatory systems of old mice to young mice, and found that it slows the aging process in the older animals and increases their lifespan by up to 10%.
In recent years studies have increasingly shown that giving older mice blood transfusions from young mice results in a range of health benefits, including improved neurological function, slowing progression of diseases like Alzheimer’s, and increasing lifespan. But if that’s just from the occasional hit of young blood, what could more sustained doses do?
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For the new study, led by Duke Health, scientists surgically connected the circulatory systems of old and young mice. The process is called heterochronic parabiosis, and it’s previously been used to study whether Alzheimer’s originates outside of the brain.
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