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Ageing

From stem to stern

Nature volume 449, pages 288–291 (2007)Cite this article

Immortality is the stuff of myth and legend, but lifespan extension is the subject of serious scientific inquiry. Exploring the causes and effects of ageing in stem cells should aid this quest.

The explosion of research on stem cells has given the promise of treatments for degenerative diseases of ageing, enhancement of the repair of damaged tissues and possibly even slowing of decline-in-function that occurs with advancing age. But how stem cells are affected by the ageing process, and whether such changes are a cause or a consequence of organismal ageing, remain unclear1. Three research teams2,3,4 have recently reported their findings on how age-related accumulation of DNA damage and changes in global patterns of gene expression might lead to the decline of stem-cell function.

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Figure 1: Interplay between factors and networks influencing ageing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Anne Brunet is in the Department of Genetics, and Thomas A. Rando is in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305, USA. anne.brunet@stanford.edu rando@stanford.edu,

    Anne Brunet & Thomas A. Rando

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  1. Anne Brunet
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  2. Thomas A. Rando
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Brunet, A., Rando, T. From stem to stern. Nature 449, 288–291 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/449288a

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