Thrilling rejuvenation

The vampire clubs of the world may be rejoicing because the latest research into rejuvenation puts the spotlight on young blood at the core of the experiment and, ghoulish as it may sound, it appears there is a point to literally infusing young blood.

Experiments on mice indicate there are compounds in the blood of young mice that could awaken old stem cells and rejuvenate ageing tissue, including in the brain.

However, rejuvenating old body parts with the protein GDF11 also comes with the rider that uncontrolled stem cell growth might also lead to more cancers. Before anyone jumps to conclusions and thinks about biting young people in the neck after midnight, let the world be warned that the experiments by two sets of scientists are merely the first step in finding the Holy Grail of life — trying to stop ageing.

The significance of the findings may engender the hope that, in a few generations, man can expect to live longer, although what effect that would have on Earth’s already stretched finite resources is too chilling to contemplate.

Such research might primarily help crack the difficulties current knowledge of medicine has in tackling diseases like Alzheimer’s and debilitating heart disease. The curing of sick people is far more important than the use of esoteric science to increase the life spans of the rich and famous.

If medicine can be channelled into decreasing the suffering of the sick and infirm while taking head-on the challenge of intractable diseases, mankind would have progressed to a higher plane.