
Scientists reverse aging process in rat brain stem cells - lelf
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-08-scientists-reverse-aging-rat-brain.html
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dr_coffee
The cell's ability to mechanically sense it's surroundings is fascinating.
There is an old paper from 2006 in Cell that was similar to this study in that
it showed onencould direct stem cell differentiation down different lineages
purely by growing the cells on different stiffness substrates. Definitely
worth a read of you are interested in this topic:

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/16923388/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/16923388/)

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MrZongle2
Say what you want about its applicability to human subjects, the quality of
life for lab mice and rats has increased significantly in the last 50 years!

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lnanek2
Considering this study probably involved slicing open hundreds of rat heads, I
think us humans being interested in neurons more now vs. 50 years ago, has
only made things worse for them. Although 50 years ago they likely suffered
more amputations and the like.

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ineedasername
Well, it's a strange issue. Without such testing, they wouldn't exist at all.
So, is a life of, maybe okay but maybe awful lab testing better than none at
all?

On a human level, we generally value being alive no matter the conditions,
e.g., debilitating illness, chronic pain, etc., over not being alive. Of
course there are exceptions like euthanasia, which are relatively rare. So why
not apply that ethical equation to lab animals as well?

I'm just hypothesizing here. I don't particularly like animal testing, think
its cruel, think it may be necessary, think it's a morally ambiguous
situation, etc. Which is to say it's a complicated topic.

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Lorkki
> Without such testing, they wouldn't exist at all. So, is a life of, maybe
> okay but maybe awful lab testing better than none at all?

There's no experience of any kind related to not existing in the first place,
so the two options are completely orthogonal. It's like asking whether you'd
suffer from your parents never having met.

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ineedasername
Hardly orthogonal: better to exist in suffering or not exist is rather acutely
the topic of interest to those contemplating suicide.

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Lorkki
Again, two different things - ending an existence, versus there being no
existence to begin with.

Conflating the two makes one argue ethics from a realm of infinite
possibilities instead of focusing on reality, which doesn't really make for
great moral choices. For instance, should people have as much unprotected sex
as possible, without any regard to their or their offspring's well-being, just
to give the most children the chance to exist?

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ilaksh
Did they reverse the aging process, or just trick the cells into thinking they
were in a less stiff environment?

Does disabling Piezo1 have any side effects? I am guessing there is a reason
for it. Might be more applicable in severe MS than aging.

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ajayk1931
Interested in the implications of this in context of concussions.

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el_don_almighty
I, for one look forward to serving our new Rat overlords...

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dang
Not here, please.

