(Press-News.org) ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Declining levels of the protein BubR1 occur when both people and animals age, and contribute to cell senescence or deterioration, weight loss, muscle wasting and cataracts. Mayo Clinic researchers have shown that adult progenitor or stem cells -- important for repair and regeneration of skeletal muscle and maintenance of healthy fat tissue -- are subject to cellular senescence, and that clearance of these cells limits age-related deterioration of these tissues. The findings appear today online in the journal Cell Reports.
BubR1 is an essential part of the mitotic checkpoint, the mechanism controlling proper cell division or mitosis. Without sufficient levels of BubR1, chromosomal imbalance will occur, leading to premature aging and cancer. Using mutant mice that expressed low levels of BubR1, the researchers found development of dysfunctional tissue with impaired cell regeneration. In analyzing the progenitor populations in skeletal muscle and fat, they found that a subset of progenitors was senescent and that the tumor suppressor p53 was acting to prevent this from happening through activation of p21.
"Earlier we discovered that senescent cells accumulate in tissues with aging and that removal of these cells delays age-related functional decline in these tissues," says Jan van Deursen, Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic molecular biologist and senior author of the study. "The key advance of the current study is that the progenitor cell populations are most sensitive for senescence, thereby interfering with the innate capacity of the tissue to counteract degeneration."
Not only do the findings contribute to knowledge on cell senescence as it relates to aging and related diseases, but understanding the mechanisms may lead to future therapies, say the researchers.
###
Co-authors include Darren Baker, Ph.D., and Robbyn Weaver both of Mayo Clinic.
The research was supported by the Ellison Medical Foundation, the Noaber Foundation, the National Institutes of Health (CA96985 and AG41122), and the Mayo Clinic Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging.
About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit worldwide leader in medical care, research and education for people from all walks of life. For more information, visit http://www.mayoclinic.org/about and http://www.mayoclinic.org/news.
Journalists can become a member of the Mayo Clinic News Network for the latest health, science and research news and access to video, audio, text and graphic elements that can be downloaded or embedded.
Mayo Clinic researchers discover that stem cell senescence drives aging
2013-04-18
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Why does smallpox vaccine shield some, not others? It's in the genes, Mayo finds
2013-04-18
ROCHESTER, Minn. -- How well people are protected by the smallpox vaccine depends on more than the quality of the vaccination: individual genes can alter their response, Mayo Clinic research shows. The findings, gathered using sophisticated genomic screening, appear in today's online issue of the journal Genes and Immunity.
MULTIMEDIA ALERT: Video of Dr. Poland is available on the Mayo Clinic News Network.
"We were looking into the intercellular reactions that occur when vaccinated and unvaccinated persons are exposed to and infected with smallpox virus. We were able ...
Reinventing drug discovery
2013-04-18
Cambridge, MA, April 18, 2013 - Using a new stem-cell based drug screening technology with the potential to reinvent and greatly reduce the cost of the way new pharmaceuticals are developed, Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers have found a compound more effective in protecting the neurons killed in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) – Lou Gehrig's disease – than two drugs that failed in human clinical trials after hundreds of millions of dollars had been invested in them.
The new stem cell screening technique developed by Lee Rubin, a member of HSCI's Executive ...
Scientists scan the human heart to create digital anatomical library
2013-04-18
VIDEO:
This is the video article, "Anatomical Reconstructions Of The Human Cardiac Venous System Using Contrast-Computed Tomography of Perfusion-fixed Specimens. "
Click here for more information.
On April 18th JoVE (Journal of Visualized Experiments) will publish a new video article by Dr. Paul A Iaizzo demonstrating the anatomical reconstruction of an active human heart. The research uses contrast-computed tomography (CT) to allow in-depth 3-D computer modeling ...
Researchers use Web 2.0 apps to share vaccine study
2013-04-18
(Seattle, WA, April 18, 2013) In a manuscript published today in Immunity, scientists at the Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason (BRI) and the Baylor Institute for Immunology Research (BIIR) report the results of a comparative study of the molecular immune responses to influenza and pneumococcal vaccines. In addition, cutting-edge web technology was used to improve dissemination of data in order to accelerate the pace of scientific discovery. The article features interactive figures (iFigures!; http://www.interactivefigures.com ) that can be customized and allow ...
Treatment for novel coronavirus shows promise in early lab tests
2013-04-18
National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists studying an emerging coronavirus have found that a combination of two licensed antiviral drugs, ribavirin and interferon-alpha 2b, can stop the virus from replicating in laboratory-grown cells. These results suggest that the drug combination could be used to treat patients infected with the new coronavirus, but more research is needed to confirm this preliminary finding. The study appears in the April 18, 2013, issue of Scientific Reports.
The new coronavirus, called nCoV, was first identified in Saudi Arabia in September ...
Evolving genes lead to evolving genes
2013-04-18
Researchers have designed a method that can universally test for evolutionary adaption, or positive (Darwinian) selection, in any chosen set of genes, using re-sequencing data such as that generated by the 1000 Genomes Project. The method identifies gene sets that show evidence for positive selection in comparison with matched controls, and thus highlights genes for further functional studies.
The method was employed to test whether any of the genes directly regulated by FOXP2 may themselves have undergone positive selection following the known selection at the FOXP2 ...
From mice to humans, comfort is being carried by mom
2013-04-18
VIDEO:
This video shows a behavioral task in a human mother-infant dyad.
Click here for more information.
There is a very good reason mothers often carry their crying babies, pacing the floor, to help them calm down. New research published in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on April 18 shows that infants experience an automatic calming reaction upon being carried, whether they are mouse or human babies.
The study is the first to show that the infant calming response to ...
Nearly 30 percent of women fail to pick up new prescriptions for osteoporosis, study finds
2013-04-18
PASADENA, Calif., April 18, 2013 — Nearly 30 percent of women failed to pick up their bisphosphonate prescriptions, a medication that is most commonly used to treat osteoporosis and similar bone diseases, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published this week in the journal Osteoporosis International. The failure to pick up these newly prescribed medications, called primary nonadherence, can lead to an increased risk of fractures for these patients.
The study examined the electronic health records of 8,454 women, ages 55 years or older, who were Kaiser Permanente ...
Dinosaur egg study supports evolutionary link between birds and dinosaurs
2013-04-18
A small, bird-like North American dinosaur incubated its eggs in a similar way to brooding birds – bolstering the evolutionary link between birds and dinosaurs, researchers at the University of Calgary and Montana State University study have found.
Among the many mysteries paleontologists have tried to uncover is how dinosaurs hatched their young. Was it in eggs completely buried in nest materials, like crocodiles? Or was it in eggs in open or non-covered nests, like brooding birds?
Using egg clutches found in Alberta and Montana, researchers Darla Zelenitsky at the ...
Age matters to Antarctic clams
2013-04-18
A new study of Antarctic clams reveals that age matters when it comes to adapting to the effects of climate change. The research provides new insight and understanding of the likely impact of predicted environmental change on future ocean biodiversity.
Reporting this week in the journal Global Change Biology scientists from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and from Germany's University of Kiel and the Alfred Wegener Institute reveal that when it comes to environmental change the reaction of Antarctic clams (laternula elliptica) – a long-lived and abundant species that ...