Dracula was right: The elixir of youth could be the young

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a r c h s o c e s p o f t a l m o l . 2 0 1 5;9 0(9):448–454
L. Hernández Bel ∗ , A. Cabrera, N. Domenech,
B. Moratal, E. Cervera
Departamento de Oftalmología, Hospital General, Valencia,
Spain
453
∗ Corresponding
author.
E-mail address: laura hernandez bel@hotmail.com
(L. Hernández Bel).
2173-5794/© 2014 Sociedad Española de Oftalmología.
Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.
Dracula was right: The elixir of youth could be the
young blood夽
Drácula tenía razón: el elixir de la juventud podría ser la sangre joven
Dear Editor:
It is said that reality overpasses fiction, even in centuries. This
is what Bram Stoker, Dracula’s creator, might think today with
the result of recent studies1–3 : young blood rejuvenates. The
blood of 2-month-old mice injected into 22-month-old mice
and, therefore, at their final life stage (the life of a laboratory
mouse is not longer than 24 months), rejuvenates the muscle
and brain of these old mice, but the blood of old mice damages young mice. Researchers found “something” capable of
restoring the different brain abilities in senile mice: Growth
Differentiation Factor 11 (GDF-11). Contained in the blood of
young mice, it causes anatomical, molecular and functional
changes in the brain of senile mice, improving their learning
and orientation abilities, making them comparable to those of
young mice: a higher number of dendrites is developed facilitating the contact among neurons. The GDF-11 stimulates the
birth of new neurons in the hippocampus and the olfactory
bulb, allowing old mice to recover the loss of smell. It improves
the cerebral vascular system and the blood flow and also acts
on the muscle and heart, improving their vitality. Ultimately,
the GDF-11 reverses the ageing of multiple tissues. The GDF11 diminishes with age and its action can be counteracted by
pro-ageing factors, thus the blood injection from senile mice
harmed young mice. If this worked in humans, it could be
a new way to treat degenerative processes. Retinal disease
is among the more significant weakening diseases and, in
most cases, there are few therapeutic options. The GDF-11
expresses in the central nervous system, including the retina,
controlling the number of retinal lymph node cells, amacrine
cells and photoreceptors. It plays a leading role when the
formation of the different types of cells in the retina starts
from progenitor cells. It may be used for treating diseases
such as macular degeneration and, in general, neurodegenerative and neurovascular diseases because GDF-11 expresses
in multiple regions of the central nervous system. Its effect
is due to the increase of vascularization, blood flow and
neurogenesis.
references
1. Katsimpardi L, Litterman NK, Schein PA, Miller CM, Loffredo
FS, Wojtkiewicz GR, et al. Vascular and neurogenic
rejuvenation of the aging mouse brain by young systemic
factors. Science. 2014;344:630–4.
2. Villeda SA, Plambeck KE, Middeldorp J, Castellano JM, Mosher
KI, Luo J, et al. Young blood reverses age-related impairments
in cognitive function and synaptic plasticity in mice. Nat Med.
2014, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nm.3569.
3. Sinha M, Jang YC, Oh J, Khong D, Wu EY, Manohar R, et al.
Restoring systemic GDF11 levels reverses age-related
dysfunction in mouse skeletal muscle. Science.
2014;344:649–52.
V.M. Asensio-Sánchez
Servicio de Oftalmología, Hospital Clínico Universitario, Valladolid,
Spain
E-mail address: victor asensio@orangemail.es
2173-5794/© 2014 Sociedad Española de Oftalmología.
Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.
夽
Please cite this article as: Asensio-Sánchez VM. Drácula tenía razón: el elixir de la juventud podría ser la sangre joven. Arch Soc Esp
Oftalmol. 2015;90:453.