A team of researchers has found a novel way of rejuvenating old mice by surgically connecting their circulatory systems to those of young rodents, a breakthrough that provides new light on the aging process.

A new study conducted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences researchers discovered that infusing young blood into elderly mice might “rejuvenate” their adult stem cells and surrounding somatic cells, and that exposure to old blood could promote the ageing of many organs and cell types in young animals.

They also discovered that the stem cells that give rise to other blood and immune cells, known as haematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs), are among the cells most susceptible to young blood.

The study’s primary author, Ma Shuai said, “Most of the previous relevant studies have only demonstrated the [rejuvenation] phenomena and have not revealed enough about the essential mechanisms.”

According to Ma, who is also a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Zoology and Beijing Institute of Genomics, the goal of the study was to establish scientific proof and address the question of how young blood caused a response in aged cells.

Last Tuesday, the work was published in the peer-reviewed journal Cell Stem Cell.

Scientists have been interested in the anti-aging qualities of young blood since the late 1950s, when the first research on the topic was published, and their interest has grown since the early 2000s.

Scientists have created a technique called heterochronic parabiosis, in which a young mouse and an aged mouse share a circulatory system, allowing researchers to assess how tissues and organs behave at a systemic level.

After giving aging mice new blood for a month, scientists at Stanford University discovered evidence of rejuvenation in their muscles and livers.

Over the course of five years, Chinese researchers isolated and examined more than 164,000 single cells from seven organs to determine how parabiosis contributes to ageing and regeneration.

The authors said that the effects of rejuvenation in old mice were caused by the activation of aged HSPCs, not by the movement of young HSPCs into the bone marrow.

“Our work constitutes a mineable resource for advancing our understanding of ageing-related systemic factors and how they might be targeted to alleviate ageings,” the report noted.

Although the latest study was conducted on living mice, many scientists and entrepreneurs are intrigued by the possibility of regenerating elderly people.

Ambrosia, a US-based start-up, used to sell 1.5 litres (50 fluid ounces) of human plasma transfusions from young donors, pumped over two days. The product was deemed “not safe or effective” by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2019.

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