Is GDF11 the key protein in young blood that rejuvenates older animals?

Research over the past few years have pointed toward a protein known as GDF11 as the key protein that is responsible for rejuvenating older mice when they are transfused with younger mice blood. However, research studies by the pharmaceutical company, Novartis challenge this idea and suggest GDF11 may not play such an important role in this effect as previously thought. 

As stated in an editorial by Jocelyn Kaiser at Science magazine:

"The Novartis group does not question that young blood renews old mice. But they say the Harvard group’s explanation is wrong. Their paper, published today in Cell Metabolism, casts doubt on the assays used in the earlier research and suggests that GDF11 actually inhibits muscle regeneration. “The whole premise is incorrect,” says stem cell researcher Michael Rudnicki of the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, who co-wrote a commentary accompanying the paper. Others are more cautious, but agree that the new work undermines part of the original GDF11 claim. “GDF11 does not go down with age,” says Thomas Rando, a biologist at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.

Harvard stem cell biologist Amy Wagers, who led much of the original work, says the Novartis data on GDF11 levels are not persuasive. And although they “appear to conflict with” her group’s, “we are actually very excited to see the Novartis data,” she says. “We remain convinced that at least one form of GDF11 declines in blood with age and that maintaining GDF11 levels in an appropriate physiological range is essential for muscle health.”


So the jury may still be out on this particular issue, but one thing remains clear--transferring blood from young mice has a rejuvenating effect on older mice. As such, something must be mediating such effects. I am sure the details will eventually be ironed out with so much effort being put into this research topic by academia and pharmaceutical companies. I am eager to see how this all plays out.


Jocelyn Kaiser. Doubts cast on 'rejuvenating' protein. Science. 19 May 2015 
http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2015/05/doubts-cast-rejuvenating-protein

#science   #research   #rejuvenation   #aging  #anti-aging 
#biology   #GDF11   #harvard  #novartis