Why discuss recommendations for anti-aging medical interventions on a web site now?
Isn't it premature? Why not wait until all the relevant clinical trials have been completed, the results are in, and the FDA has approved each of the proposed interventions for general use?
The answer is because we can't afford to wait that long. Time is of the essence.
To paraphrase the late Prof. William Regelson's argument in his book, The Super-Hormone Promise: Nature's Antidote to Aging:
"(1) As we age, we lose function;
(2) The loss of biological function is associated with decreased hormone levels and/or decreased cell-surface membrane receptors for these hormones;
(3) In animal studies, restoring certain hormones to youthful physiological levels is associated with increased biological function;
(4) Maintenance of these biological functions in experimental animals, like mice, and presumably in humans as well, is associated with longer life.
The logic of this argument suggests that in order to extend our lives, we should restore deficient hormone levels to their youthful physiological levels either by taking pills when possible or injections when necessary."
However, we also realize that hormonal interventions are only a temporary stopgap measure until more permanent cellular revitalization is possible.
The argument regarding cellular rejuvenation goes as follows:
(1) All mammalian germ line cells are essentially immortal.
Evidence: The human species is still here after many hundreds of thousand of years on the Earth. Also, whatever accumulated free radical damage or mitochondrial senescence may take place in eggs of women under 30 years of age, upon fertilization with a freshly-made champion-swimming sperm, almost all age-related defects are eliminated with the exception of embryos that fail to undergo implantation/placentation (perhaps 50 percent) and with the exception of fetuses born with life-shortening congenital defects (less than one percent).
(2) All mammalian somatic cells are essentially mortal (a major exception being transformed neoplastic cells).
Evidence: A microscopic tissue pathologist or histologist would be pleased to point out the accumulated lipofuscin pigment and many other age-related changes associated with old cells. Rapidly dividing epithelial cells also undergo chromosomal changes in their nuclei related to telomere shortening.
(3) While all mammalian somatic cells are mortal, they are apparently totipotent (DNA still intact).
Evidence from sheep: "Dolly" the Scottish lamb was cloned from a Finn Dorset progenitor ewe's utter cell. Her surrogate mother was a blackface ewe, so as to avoid confusion at birth, but the validity of the clone was verified subsequently by DNA fingerprinting.
Corollary 3.1 -- All somatic cells can be stimulated with highly-specific ligands to commit Programmed Cell Death (apoptosis).
Evidence: From cell culture experiments carried out at Genentech in South San Francisco.
Corollary 3.2 -- All somatic cells can be stimulated to commit programmed cell rejuvenation.
Evidence: 3.2.1 -- From cancer cells grown in culture, like HeLa cells, with no apparent replicative senescence following tens of thousands of mitoses.
3.2.2-- Technical means for introducing fresh DNA into the nucleus of a somatic cell by means of Human Artificial Chromosomes (HACs) is now being tested (Athersys, Inc., a Cleveland, Ohio-based biotechnology company).
Conclusion: There is nothing in the laws of physics, chemistry, or biology that prohibit somatic cells in vivo from rejuvenating the entire body's tissues and organ systems from heart to lungs, from brain to vessels. We just haven't figured out how to do it yet.
Therefore, we remain fiercely dedicated to the proposition that The Reversibility of the Phenomenon of Human Aging is both feasible and desirable. Feasibility will be demonstrated initially with mice and later with humans early in the next Century. The precise genetic engineering methods to be applied are presently unknown, but we can say with confidence that they will entail the view of mammalian genomes in programmatic (software engineering) terms from fertilization, embryogenesis, birth, infancy, adolescence, reproductive maturity, and finally post-reproductive grandparenting. The genetics of each of these developmental phases need not be understood in exquisite detail but in sufficient detail to test interventional hypotheses. Let's get on with the work that clearly needs to be done.
Furthermore, to speed things up, we need your help. See other parts of this site to see how you can contribute.