Scientists are reporting the first direct evidence that a subtle change in the physical properties of a tissue can affect its function. The finding has immediate implications for understanding several rare hearing disorders, they said, and ultimatel…
Tracing all the genetic changes that flow from a single mutation, UCSF scientists have identified the kinds of genes and systems in the body that ultimately allow a doubling of lifespan in the roundworm, C. elegans. Humans share many of these genes, and the researchers think the new findings offer clues to increasing human youthfulness and longevity as well.
Why do serious diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s mainly hit us in middle age or later? The links between aging and age-related diseases have proved elusive. In studies of the powerfully informative roundworm, C. elegans, UCSF scientists have discovered that a class of molecules found in the worms and in people can both prolong life in the worm and prevent the harmful accumulation of abnormal proteins that cause a debilitating Huntington’s-like disease. The finding appears to be the first evidence in an animal of a link between aging and age-related disease.
The sculpting of the face during embryonic development ? the physical molding that determines what we will look like ? may remain open to change much longer than had been thought, according to research by UCSF scientists. While this prolonged period means the developing face has increased vulnerability to environmental insults in utero, the plasticity also provides more opportunity for repair and restoration of facial defects in utero as new diagnostic and therapeutic techniques are developed to allow earlier intervention, the researchers say.
Using a human gene, scientists have corrected a defect in infertile flies that prevented them from carrying out a key step in the creation of sperm. The finding advances the effort to identify the genes involved in human male infertility, the researchers say, and suggests a possible target for a male contraceptive.
By experimentally switching genes off or on at specific stages in an animal’s lifecycle, California scientists have discovered that vigor and lifespan can be significantly extended with no side effects. Many researchers believe that increasing lifespan will dampen reproduction. But the new study of the tiny roundworm commonly known as C. elegans shows that silencing a key gene only in adulthood increases longevity with no effect on reproduction.
Pre-cells destined to become fat can be converted instead into true bone cells in
response to outside signals, say researchers at the University of California, San Francisco. The finding could pave the way for scientists to replenish lost bone cells in patients with conditions like osteoporosis, and to help repair bone defects. The new bone cells have all the hallmarks associated with mature bone formation, including production of bone proteins and calcification, the UCSF team says.