Have we found the secret to vampires’ long lives?

Hang on. Put your fangs (or stakes) away. Drinking blood may not work, but apparently young blood can still put some of the spring back into the step of an old timer — an old timer mouse, at least.

A recent study demonstrated that by infusing the blood of young mice into their elders, scientists could reverse some of the age-related decline in the brains of the older mice.

A similar study has now found the same effect can be observed in the heart.

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Researchers took a young, healthy mouse and surgically connected its circulatory system with an older mouse that displayed 'cardiac hypertrophy' — that's the swelling and thickening of the heart muscles due to age.

It looks a bit like a creepy B-movie set up, but there's no denying it was effective.

According to NewScientist, "After just four weeks, the older mouse's heart had reverted to almost the same size as that of its younger counterpart." Which is still sort of creepy, but has some interesting implications.

One of the researchers, Amy Wagers, reported to NewScientist that "since all parts of the body appear to age at the same rate, there should be something in the blood that coordinates ageing."

One protein, called GDF11, that was abundant in the blood of the younger mice, has a key role in cell development and healing and is the prime suspect for what caused the improvement in the hearts of the older mice. When it was given directly to the heart-diseased animals for 30 days, researchers found a similar effect; shrunken and healthier hearts.

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This opens up a potential avenue for threatment of humans with similar heart disease, but as with all things, a lot more research is needed before we get to that stage.

So no running out and fanging your way to improved health.

Yet.

(Images and video courtesy: Getty/Wagers, et al./Cell)

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