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Cell aging: The pathway to eternal youth

Posted by tztong on 05 Jun 2008 at 09:09 GMT

A protein believed to promote long life in humans, SIRT1, regulates signalling pathways that favour the survival of stressed cells. It is unknown whether SIRT1 can act as an 'anti-aging' protein by enhancing the well-being of non-stressed cells. Tanjun Tong and co-workers at the Peking University Research Center on Aging and the Peking University Health Science Center1, both in Beijing, have found that an overexpression of SIRT1 increases cell growth and delays cell aging in fibroblasts taken from human embryonic lung tissues.
The researchers analysed aging activities in fibroblasts grafted with SIRT1, H363YSIRT1 (a malfunctioned form of SIRT1) and control cells. They found that aging-related biomarkers, including increased activity of -galactosidase, heterochromatin foci formation, and G1 phase arrest, were reduced in SIRT1-overexpressed cells. The researchers also observed that growth-related ERK and S6K1 signalling pathways were increased in SIRT1-overexpressed cells, but not in cells that had already undergone aging.
These findings show that SIRT1 delays cell aging and might extend the cellular lifespan through the activation of ERK and S6K1 phosphorylation. The lack of ERK and S6K1 signalling in aged cells also has implications for future studies in this area.
From Jasmine Farsarakis :Nature China (26 Mar 2008), doi: 10.1038/nchina.2008.67, Research Highlights

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