Conjecture: Can Continuous Regeneration Lead to Immortality? Studies in the MRL Mouse

Interestingness: 2

By Ellen Heber-Katz, John Leferovich, Khamilia Bedelbaeva, Dmitri Gourevitch, and Lise Clark. Rejuvenation Research. Spring 2006, 9(1): 3-9. doi:10.1089/rej.2006.9.3.

Heber-Katz is the creator of the MRL mouse, which is a mouse with higher regeneration capabilities (regenerates chopped fingers, closes holes on ears and closes holes in their heart).  They are trying to make some claim for it having longer longevity potential by making parallels with the hydra.

The hydra is a little (1 centimetre?) aquatic thing that probably doesn't age. It continuously produces cells from somewhere near the middle of the body. Those cells migrate to the extremities and die or bud off or just  fall/float off. Their whole body gets replaced every 4 days. Their rate of cell reproduction and probability of death doesn't seem to change, at least for the few years that's been studied.

The parallel alluded to then is that of high cell generation/high cell death. In this paper, they show high cell generation in their injured hearts, and probably high cell death in a brain injury study.