The key to the long-awaited elixir of eternal youth could lie in protein, according to a study published today in the journal PNAS. Rochelle Buffenstein and her colleagues at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center came to this conclusion after comparing the aging process in the naked mole rat ( Heterocephalus glaber ), the oldest rodent with a mean age of almost 30 years, with common laboratory mice.
Scientists generally attribute aging to the slow destruction of cells as they react with oxygen, a process known as oxidative stress . However, laboratory mice and naked mole rats show a similar increase in oxidative stress as they age. The only thing that differentiates them, Buffenstein has found, is that the proteins in mole rats are much more stable and maintain their shape and function throughout most of the animal's life. In contrast, in mice these molecules soon lose their shape when they are young, which would explain why they age earlier.
