JERUSALEM, May 19 (Xinhua) -- Researchers restored youthful DNA organization in the livers of old mice by boosting the longevity-linked protein SIRT6, suggesting that certain age-related cellular changes may be reversible, Israel's Bar-Ilan University said Tuesday in a statement.
Aging disrupts chromatin, the system that packages DNA and controls gene activity, activating inflammatory genes while weakening those essential for healthy liver function, it said.
When researchers from Israel and the United States increased SIRT6 levels in 2-year-old mice (equivalent to humans aged 70 to 80), the liver's chromatin patterns reverted to a youthful state within one month, reversing about 80 percent of age-related changes, it said.
Previous studies on centenarians linked SIRT6 to longer life, revealing a more active variant of the protein in those individuals, it noted.
The new findings indicate that aging may be driven partly by reversible changes in DNA regulation, opening new possibilities for anti-aging therapies, it added. ■
