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It occurs to me that mitochondrial decline also seems to be an important aspect of aging. If you can just infuse mitochondria through the blood and "the organel
by T-A 8y ago
It occurs to me that mitochondrial decline also seems to be an important aspect of aging. If you can just infuse mitochondria through the blood and "the organelles will gravitate almost magically to the injured cells that need them and take up residence", that suggests a rather obvious rejuvenation approach.
- raverbashing 8y agoAnd do different cross have different mitochondria? I would be tempted to say no but I'm not sure
- seandougall 8y agoAll the cells in the body have the same mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited from the maternal side (egg cells have them, sperm cells don’t). (Edit: except for cells that have no mitochondria, of course)
- raverbashing 8y agoYes but do they differentiate across different cell types?
- seandougall 8y agoIANABiologist, but my understanding is that they don’t differentiate; they have too simplistic a structure for that, and rely on the host cells for many of their functions. The main differences seen across cell types is whether they are present or not.
- TomMarius 8y agoMy girlfriend is a biologist. She is saying that all cells that have mitochondrias in a human body have the same mitochondrial DNA.
- gaius 8y agoTruly, they are the powerhouse of the cell
- tambourine_man 8y agoBut where do we get those new mitochondria from? I'm almost afraid to ask.
- nine_k 8y agoMaybe from cloning one's own cells, then carefully dismantling them to free up mitochondria without damaging them? I don't think a lot of the tissue should be required (that is, ounces, not pounds).
- aldoushuxley001 8y agomitachondria are living organelles, they could simply be induced to replicate until the desired quantity is reached.
- tomjen3 8y agoIf I recall bio from school, they are super adapted to living in animal cells -- they probably couldn't survive on their own.
- aldoushuxley001 8y agoIt's true that they very much rely on a nuclear genome, because some of their genes required for independent replciation have been lost. But surely there's a framework that enables the mass replication of mitochondria using our own cells as a source material. I doubt blood would work because red blood cells contain effectively very minimal, if not zero, mitochondria (depending on stage of cycle). Funny enough, the best bet might be taking mitochondria from sperm or egg. Human sperm have ~50-75 mitochondria per cell. There's on average 50 million sperm cells per ml of ejaculant and the average is 2.5ml per ejaculation, so 125 million mitochondria could potentially be harvested from an average guy in a single go, provided the extraction is an unrealistic 100% efficiency.
- bjelkeman-again 8y ago
- ArtWomb 8y agoYup. It is a very promising area of rejuvenation research. I think right now most dollars are allocated to understanding basic mitochondrial function. As well as cures for the pernicious degenerative diseases associated with malfunctioning mitochondria that cruelly tend to develop in young children. But there is no question: further research activities and clinical trials have a high probability of bearing fruit. Cryo-EM visualization of metabolic pathways. Even understanding function and purpose of the THC cannabinoid receptors found on their outer membranes could unlock their mysterious hidden potential.
- Symmetry 8y agoYeah, Mitochondria are a big deal in aging. Animals of a given size with larger mitochondria populations, like hummingbirds, tend to live a lot longer than other animals of similar size. Though hummingbirds lose their ability to hover and hence feed normally in the wild long before they die of old age. Nick Lane wrote about book about mitochondria I'd heartily recommend: Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life. EDIT: And Aubrey de Grey of course has a typically audacious/crazy plan for dealing with mitochondrial mutations. http://www.sens.org/research/introduction-to-sens-research/mitochondrial-mutations http://www.sens.org/research/introduction-to-sens-research/m...