Young blood rejuvenates brains and muscles of old mice

By Sharon Begley NEW YORK (Reuters) – If three discoveries in mice reported on Sunday are applicable to people, making old brains and old muscles perform like young ones may require simply a blood transfusion. In two of the studies, giving the blood of young mice to old ones undid age-related impairments in the brain, reversing declines in learning and memory and boosting the creation of new neurons and the ability of the brain to change its structure in response to experience. The third study found that a protein in the blood of young mice improved the ability of old ones (comparable to a 70-year-old person) to exercise. Previous studies had shown that giving young mice blood from old mice impaired their cognitive function.