<Anchor> A
lot of people are interested in the technology that makes old cells rejuvenate as if turning back time.
Researchers in Korea have succeeded in rejuvenating aged skin cells.
Reporter Seo Dong-gyun will explain how it is and how far it has come.
<Reporter>
Human skin cells.
Young cells have a dark green color due to active cell division, but senescent cells that have stopped dividing are black.
As time passes, the genes are damaged, stopping cell division and aging. A domestic research team has succeeded in restoring the function and shape of these senescent cells to the level of young cells.
Researchers have identified PDK1, a protein that promotes aging in human skin.
When I suppressed the activity of this protein, I discovered that my skin cells re-divided and multiplied.
When we experimented with artificial skin, the levels of collagen and keratin, which give skin elasticity, were raised back to the level of young cells.
[Kwang-Hyun Cho/Kaist Professor of Bio and Brain Engineering: By discovering the role of protein, the most important master switch (core) that causes aging, it becomes a state of dividable young cells that have recovered their normal activity...
.]
Although there have been studies of returning old cells to younger cells, cancer-causing side effects have been shown, which has not yielded results.
In addition to skin cells, the research team believes that other cells such as organs and muscles may contain proteins that are involved in aging.
Modulation of this protein is expected to treat senile diseases.
Although it will take a lot of time for medicines or injections to be rejuvenated to the basic stage of this study, it is evaluated that it has found a groundbreaking clue to the'reverse aging' study.
(Video coverage: Nam Nam Kim, video editing: Seungjin Lee)