Adult Stem Cells May Reverse "Benjamin Button" Disease

Aimee Herd : Jan 5, 2012
Linda Carroll-MSNBC.com

"It was mind-boggling..." -Prof Johnny Huard

I'll admit I never did see the movie "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," however I bring it up now since the disease described and depicted in the film—Progeria (which causes a person to grow old at an abnormally rapid rate)—may now have an antidote. (Photo: IMDB)

According to a recent report on MSNBC, progeria in lab mice was actually reversed using the muscle stem cells from healthy mice.

Johnny Huard, co-author of the study, and professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, remarked, "When I saw them I thought, ‘Oh my God, I must have made a mistake and put the normal mice in the wrong cage.' But they were indeed the mice we'd injected with the stem cells."

Injected just once, the mice lived three times longer than mice with progeria would normally live, Huard suspects if they were injected again with the healthy stem cells, they would live even longer.

Not only is the new discovery an answer to the disease of progeria, but it could also mean a simple and effective way to fight the aging process even in healthy people.

Huard and his team of researchers have reportedly been using muscle stem cells to repair damaged hearts, bones, and cartilage, according to the article.