Chief on Aging

A gene that inhibits cell division has been found

Yulia Vorobyova, Vesti

In recent years, scientists have been finding more and more so-called aging and longevity genes. However, they still cannot answer one of the main questions: how does the natural mechanism of physiological aging at the cellular level start?

A team of researchers from the University of New York at Buffalo has come closer to solving the mystery by studying a gene that, perhaps, can be called "the main one for aging."

This gene is called CD36, and clarifying its functions is important for two reasons at once, the authors of the new work note in the press release Cells stop dividing when this gene kicks into high gear, study finds.

Firstly, it will help to understand the natural biological processes occurring in the human body and find new methods of treating many diseases that progress with age (from arthritis to cataracts).

Secondly, specialists will be able to better study cells that are not afraid of aging processes. These include, for example, tumor cells.

The researchers admit that initially the search for one particular aging gene was not their goal. The scientific group was going to catalog the already known genes related to the processes of cell aging, and study only some of them.

However, in the course of the work, experts noticed that one of the genes demonstrates special activity in aging cells.

When scientists artificially increased the activity of this gene in young healthy cells, the latter suddenly stopped dividing and began to show obvious signs of aging. Moreover, this effect spread to the entire cell culture in the Petri dish, whereas initially only 10-15% of them were modified. Further analyses showed that the remaining cells also began to express the CD36 gene (expression areas are shown in the image below in blue).

In another experiment, scientists placed young cells in a nutrient solution that previously contained a culture of "elderly" cells. And the new "tenants", as if inheriting the properties of their predecessors, also stopped sharing. (Note that earlier scientists in a similar way, on the contrary, "rejuvenated" the blood.)

"What we found surprised us a lot. Physiological aging is a complex process, and we did not expect that a change in the expression of one gene could provoke it or cause the same effect in surrounding cells," says the lead author of the study, Ekin Atilla–Gokcumen.

According to her, so far the exact role of this gene remains not completely obvious. As is known, each gene is responsible for creating a protein of the same name, but in this case, the functions of the protein encoded by CD36 are not entirely clear.

However, there is a clue. Scientists have found out that the CD36 gene is directly related to the cellular import of lipids – this was confirmed by studies of two types of cells at once, skin and lung fibroblasts (a human lung cell expressing the CD36 gene is shown below).

Experts also note that CD36 turned out to be one of the most "changeable" genes: the sequence of its nucleotides differs markedly in different people. Such diversity can be an indicator of functional changes that occur due to various factors, from evolutionary to environmental. It is also important that such changes do not always go to harm: they can also be useful, Atilla-Gokjumen believes.

Of course, accelerating the aging process is not at all what people want to know about. However, according to scientists, their results provide new promising directions for future research. If you understand the causes of undesirable changes, it will be much easier to prevent them, experts conclude.

A scientific article with a more detailed description of the work was published in the journal Molecular Omics.

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