Most organisms in nature have a certain ability to regenerate and repair tissues, such as geckos can re-grow their tails after escaping from the tail, starfish will become many small starfish after being cut into pieces, but the regenerative ability of the human body is not as strong as the first two, after birth, only bones, nerves, blood and other tissues can be partially regenerated, and organs that have a decisive role in life such as the heart can no longer regenerate.
Not only that, but our regenerative ability will also be limited by aging, and the very important reason is that as we age, stem cells and progenitor cells (cells with a certain maturity and can still divide) lose their self-renewal ability and their proliferative activity decreases.
But some creatures, such as hydra, planarians, zebrafish and salamanders, have miraculously "jumped out" of this rule, and can maintain active regeneration ability at all times, whether they are old or young. The salamander, for example, is the only vertebrate that can re-grow limbs in adulthood.
The success of these "gifted" creatures has attracted the attention of scientists, and the research team of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has studied salamanders with strong regenerative ability and deer antler velvet, the only renewable organ in mammals, and incorporated tissues or stem cells of primates of different ages (including humans) into the study, hoping to find the root cause of the difference in regenerative ability between different species.
Chinese scientists eventually discovered a substance called uridine, which can promote the regeneration of a variety of human tissues, slow down the aging of stem cells, and the senescent human stem cells after uridine treatment are "reborn": the regenerative ability is restored, the genome stability is enhanced and the mitochondrial activity is significantly improved. The blockbuster study was published in Cell Discovery, a journal owned by the journal Nature.
So what exactly is uridine sacred? The full name of uridine is uracil nucleoside, which is composed of a nitrogen-containing base (uracil) + a molecule of ribose, which is commonly used in the synthesis of RNA and cell membranes, and is widely present in vegetable cereals.
So does direct uridine supplementation have an anti-aging effect? The scientists found that it was feasible in mouse experiments, and uridine supplementation promoted the regeneration or repair of a variety of tissues in mice, including skeletal muscle, heart, and liver.
Promotes muscle tissue repair and regeneration
Uridine supplementation reduced muscle fibrosis and levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α, and the treated mice showed stronger grip and longer running distances. In addition, uridine upregulates pathways related to muscle development, promoting the repair of up to 14 types of muscle cells
Improves heart function
After supplementing uridine to the heart after myocardial infarction, the mouse heart function was greatly improved, such as left ventricular ejection fraction, serum lactate dehydrogenase, etc., and genes related to inflammatory factor secretion were significantly downregulated.
In addition, uridine supplementation reduces liver damage, promotes hair regrowth, and regenerates damaged cartilage.
Time Pie reviews
In the field of anti-aging, heavy research by Chinese scholars often appears. This time, Chinese scientists are the first to take the lead in discovering another sharp blade against aging and the key metabolite of regeneration, uridine, which can be said that the "Chinese era" of aging research has arrived!
Returning to this study, this article shows us only the "tip of the iceberg" in the series of trials – is there an optimal dose for uridine supplementation? Are there differentiated anti-aging effects for model organisms at different ages? And the public is very interested: is it possible for uridine to extend the healthy lifespan of organisms, how much can it be extended, and will it be the next star life extension substance? These questions may be fully answered in subsequent research reports, and we will continue to track and report, follow us, and learn about the latest anti-aging information.