2023-05-08 20:00:00
Chronological time is irreversible, the hands of the clock turn inexorably in a single direction and we, living beings, age at their pace. However, although it is not possible to turn back the clock on our chronological ageour biological age may turn out to be more flexible.
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The biological age It reflects the health of a person’s cells and tissues, and can be influenced by disease, changes in lifestyle, environmental conditions, or psychological state.
While scientists have found hints that biological age may be reversible in recent years, now a new study led by researchers at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, affiliated with Harvard University Medical Schoolhas just provided the first solid evidence that stress relief could restore biological age. Your results, which have implications for the development of new anti-aging drugs, are published this week in the specialized journal Cell Metabolism.
“Traditionally, biological age has been thought to simply increase, however we hypothesized that it is actually much more dynamic,” he explains. Jesse the Heathenresearcher in the department of genetics at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and lead author of the paper. “Severe stress can trigger an increase in biological age, but if that stress is short-lived, the signs of biological aging can be reversed.”
“Severe stress can increase biological age, but if that stress is short-lived, the signs of aging can be reversed.”
To test this hypothesis, Poganik and his colleagues collected data on various situations likely to cause a severe physiological stress. Thus, they examined blood samples from elderly patients who underwent emergency surgery, looking at samples collected immediately before surgery and a few days after it. The team also analyzed blood samples from mice and people during different stages of pregnancy, as well as before and after delivery. And in a third experiment, the team examined samples from patients who tested positive for Covid-19 and were admitted to the intensive care unit.
The team used so-called biological clocks to determine the health of cells and tissues. Biological clocks measure levels of DNA methylation, molecular changes that may indicate an increased risk of morbidity and mortality; widely used markers in the field of aging research.
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It was in this way that the researchers were able to observe indications that the Biological age increased in multiple physiological stress situations, an effect that was however reversed when the stressor was resolved. For example, in the analysis of patients who underwent major surgery, the team found that signs of biological age increased among those who underwent emergency surgery to repair a hip fracture. These, however, returned to baseline values 4 to 7 days after surgery.
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In the case of the effects of pregnancy on biological age, the researchers found a pattern in humans and mice in which biological age increased during pregnancy until the time of delivery, when DNA methylation values peaked. maximum before beginning to decrease after delivery.
And among patients hospitalized with Covid-19, the team observed an increase in biological age that was partially reversed at discharge from the ICU for female patients, but not for males.
“Our findings challenge the concept that biological age can only increase throughout life”
The authors point out that the biological clocks they are using are biomarkers, parameters that may reflect biological age or that could be driven by other as-yet-unidentified factors. They also point out that not all subjects recover their biological age at the same rate or to the same extent, so understanding how and why biological age increases could be key in future studies on patient recovery from certain conditions.
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“Our findings challenge the concept that biological age can only increase throughout a person’s lifetime and suggest that it is possible to identify interventions that could delay or even partially reverse biological age,” says the co-author of the paper. , Vadim GladyshevPoganik’s roommate. “When the stress was relieved, the biological age could be restored. This means that finding ways to help the body recover from stress could increase longevity,” she concludes.
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