It’s reported recently that some patients with Alzheimer’s disease have participated in a special laboratory experiment. Blood from some young people is imported into the patients’ body, in order to explore whether this application can improve the cognitive ability and reverse the damage caused by the disease. Previously, such similar study has been confirmed in mice.
It sounds like a vampire film, but mass scientists are confident about the study. Animal experiments have showed that the blood of young people could not only benefit the health of multiple organs but also the cognitive ability. Those animals even look younger. Therefore, if the same result could occur in humans, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industry or some other branches of industry could benefit from this to a large degree. In addition, compared with the young mice, cartilage aged mice seem to become younger faster than expected. Until recent days, the mechanism behind this important experiment has gained a clearer understanding.
In 2005, Thomas Rand team from the Stanford University found the blood from young mice could make liver and skeletal muscle stem cells of aged mice revert to a more youthful state. Old mice could repair their injured muscles just like those young mice. However, things seem to have two sides. Old mice received the blood of young mice also appeared premature signs of aging, and in some cases their injured muscle did not heal as quickly as expected. Several other experiments also showed similar results.
In fact, in terms of such experiments, most young mice are not affected by the other side of blood, as well as the size of the heart. On the other hand, some scientists found the presence of a plasma protein called GDF 11 could affect the blood pressure to a certain degree. Such protein seems to play a key role but its level will decline with age. With daily injected GDF 11, the blood vessels and the brain stem cells of mice have increased; the two elements are known as the factors contributed to improve brain function.
Generally speaking, such blood treatment can activate another protein connected with neurodevelopmental and long-term memory, which will certainly improve the current condition of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Modern biotech always shows its magic power in disease treatment.