(Credit: chaiyawat chaidet/Shutterstock) Transfusing blood from young mice into those with Alzheimer’s doesn’t appear to treat the disease. It’s an out-there concept that seems more of a kind with cryogenetics and organ xenotransplants but the promise of rejuvenation by blood infusion actually has some scientific legs to stand on.
That the blood of the youthful might help the elderly was first proposed over 150 years ago when studies of mice whose circulatory systems had been sewn together revealed that old mice joined to young ones appeared to do better. It was known as parabiosis or “living beside”, and the field was opened anew in the early 2000s when researchers from the Harvard Stem Cell Institute revisited surgically tying together young and old mice. A series of 2014 studies from the group showed tangible benefits for the hearts, brains and muscles of old mice, and other work has shown that the ...
