Certain yeast cells are immune to aging

Max Planck researchers unlock the secret of the eternal youth of yeast cells

13/09/2013

Normally, living things change and age over time. Dr. Iva Tolic-Nørrelykke from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics has discovered an exception and could have come a step closer to the mystery of eternal youth. The researcher found that certain yeast cells do not age under optimal environmental conditions. As the cells reproduce, they rejuvenate.

Under favorable conditions, yeast cells become immune to aging
The desire for eternal youth and vitality is probably as old as humanity. A researcher from the Max Planck Institute in Dresden has now discovered the secret of old age. Using yeast cells, she was able to understand the aging process.

As the Max Planck Institute informs, microorganisms usually do not divide into two exactly equal parts - even with symmetric cell division. Damaged components attach themselves primarily to the cell membrane and the nucleus of only one of the two halves, so that this half of the cell receives older and defective material. In contrast, the other half of the cell is supplied with fresh, functional components. In this way descendants younger than the parents are produced. This applies to human cells as well as to yeast cells.

Dr. Iva Tolic-Nørrelykke and her team examined yeast „Schizosaccharomyces pombe“ the cell division process. „We have been researching this African fission yeast since 2006, whose cells had to be shared over and over again to understand the process“, said the bio-physicist to the „image“-Newspaper. The researchers found that these yeast cells do not age under suitable conditions in the division process. Rather, they seemed to be immune to aging. Because the two daughter cells, which developed during the propagation, contained cell components in equal parts. Accordingly, there was no cell half with old, damaged and one with functional material. The cells of „Schizosaccharomyces pombe“ also divided the damaged material evenly among themselves so that each daughter cell inherited only half of the damage. As a result, both cell halves were younger than before. „The yeast tapers with every cell division”, explained Tolic-Nørrelykke.

Human stem, germ and cancer cells are also immune to aging
The researchers also found that it was only on favorable condition to the „just“ Breakdown of damaged components came. If the yeast cells were exposed to stress, for example, by heat or toxic chemicals, the cell division was like that of other cells. There was a „Boy“ and a „old“ Zell half.

Because the younger cells of the yeast „Schizosaccharomyces pombe“ survive so long that they can reproduce under unfavorable circumstances, the researchers want to use the results for studies on human cells, which also do not age. These include, for example, human stem, germ and cancer cells. The researchers published their findings in the journal „Current Biology“. (Ag)