Some animals and plants that reproduce asexually “can in principle achieve essentially eternal life,” according to a University of Gothenburg press release.
Scientists at the university are studying such species to find out how they avoid aging. So far, one chemical appears to be key: telomerase. This is an enzyme that protects DNA. It is more active in the longest-lived people, so its benefits likely extend throughout the animal kingdom.
The animals that can possibly achieve immortality under ideal conditions, such as sea squirts, certain corals, Hydra, and Turritopsis nutricula (the immortal jellyfish), often activate telomerase. Helen Nilsson Sköld of the Department of Marine Ecology, University of Gothenburg, and colleague Matthias Obst are studying sea squirts and starfish to learn more about how these marine creatures seem to ward off aging.
Out of the animal immortality A-list, sea squirts and starfish have genes that most closely resemble those of humans.
“Animals that clone themselves, in which part of an individual’s body is passed on to the next generations, have particularly interesting conditions related to remaining in good health to persist,” Sköld was quoted as saying in the press release. “This makes it useful to study these animals in order to understand mechanisms of aging in humans.”
“My research has shown that sea squirts rejuvenate themselves by activating the enzyme telomerase, and in this way extending their chromosomes and protecting their DNA,” she added. “They also have a special ability to discard ‘junk’ from their cells. Older parts of the animal are quite simply broken down, and are then partially recycled when new and healthy parts grow out from the adult bodies.”
Starfish are also amazingly immune to problems that affect the rest of us. If they lose a body part, for example, many species can simply grow another one. Reproduction involves tearing apart their bodies, somewhat akin to growing a new plant from a broken off piece of a “mother plant.”
Eternal life, from an evolutionary standpoint, however, has a big drawback. Due to asexual reproduction, the species as a whole retains very low genetic variation. This means they could be particularly vulnerable to climate change and not enjoy immortality after all.
Scientists are therefore rushing to study such species, which may hold the secrets of increasing our own longevity. It would be a colossal human mistake if our pollution, habitat encroachment and other activities erased our chances of learning more about nature’s anti-aging secrets.
Me: This is what the scientists are saying about it’s age reversing powers…”undergo a sort of reverse metamorphosis back to its youthful form as a stalk-like polyp” and “infinite do-overs is a process called transdifferentiation, which turns one type of cell into another. While other animals can undergo limited transdifferentiation to regenerate organs (salamandars can regrow limbs, for example), Turritopsi is the only one that can regenerate its entire body.”
From this scientific article from Science Pub HERE…
Transdifferentiation occurs when a non-stem cell turns itself into another type of cell. But, it is not clear if stem cells are involved in this immortality or not. As my opinion, the transdifferentiation in Turritopsis nutricula has related mechanism to stem cell when the life cycle reverted. It is important to reveal the relationship of this Turritopsis nutricula transdifferentiation and stem cell. Transdifferentiation is rare, and when it does occur, it most commonly occurs in parts of the organsism, like in the eye of the salamander. However, the immortal jellyfish has incorporated transdifferentiation into its lifecycle. In the process, all of the old cells are regenerated. At the end of the cycle, the immortal jellyfish is a young polyp, ready to start life anew (Wendy, 2009).
In the laboratory, 100% of these medusae regularly undergo this change. The cells that accomplish the building of a new stolon are probably those of the exumbrella. However, it is not known whether the sensory cells, myoepithelial cells, and cnidocytes are derived from the exumbrella or the endodermal component.
Germline stem cell is the cell in the earliest of the cell stage. It is possible to inject the germline stem cell into adult human body to get the eternal life (Ma Hongbao 2007). However, the reveal of the transdifferentiation mechanism of the jellyfish Turritopsis nutricula will offer the chance to explore the possibility of the eternal life for human.
This is done through a cell change in the external screen, exumbrella. In it’s life cycle, the medusa is transformed into a stolon and the polyps into a hydroid colony. The umbrella turns inside out; middle section and tentacles are reabsorbed before the polyp spawns. Stolons form two days before the polyps differentiate.
It can do this because it can alter the differentiated state of a cell, transforming it into another cell type, called transdifferentiation, and it is usually seen only when parts of an organ regenerate.
In this transdifferentiation process, the medusa is transformed into the stolons and polyps of a hydroid colony. First, the umbrella everts and the tentacles and mesoglea are resorbed. The everted medusa attach to the substrate by the end that had been at the opposite end of the umbrella, and spawning occurs shortly thereafter. The cnidarian then secretes a perisarc and stolons. Two days after the stolons are first seen, polyps differentiate.
Conclusion: For this article post, I wanted to state first that I want to leave all of the talk for the application of human immortality possibilities to other scientists but I wanted to focus on the possibility of using the ability of the Nutricula on height increase. If we can figure out the entire mechanism of transdifferentiation, I would be willing to bet that we can figure out the trigger signals that cause the cells to change into the type that we desire.
Theoretically, if we can get the right signals triggered, we can get the obsteoblasts and even the osteoclasts in the human bone which are live organisms to revert back into chondrocytes, original mesenchynaml stem cells, and cartilage cells. If we can get the bones cells to use transdifferentiation to revert to cartilage cells, get others to turn into chondrocytes, and get another layer of bone cells into stem cells, we can create growth plate cartilage in places in our body again, and that would lead to natural height increase as before. The hard cortical bone matrix made of collagen and calcium and mineral deposits can be reabsorbed into the body and it is replaced by the cartilage.
