Hypothalamic Stem Cells and Aging: The Role of Exosomes in Maintaining Vitality

[BillTre]

The hypothalamus is at the base (bottom) of the forebrain and is involved in hormones and regulation of body metabolism.
The study described here proposes that the loss of hypothalamic stem cells is involved in loss of abilities in old age, perhaps through the loss of the microRNAs they spew out in exosomes.

 

[Ygggdrasil]

Exosomes are quite a hot area of research these days. They are being increasingly recognized as being important in cancer biology as they help mediate communication between tumor cells and the surrounding stromal cells to create the proper microenvironment that supports tumor growth (http://www.cell.com/cancer-cell/fulltext/S1535-6108(16)30496-2). New research has even co-opted these natural means of cell-cell communication to deliver anti-cancer therapies (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature22341.html). Perhaps if exosome-based drug delivery becomes possible, they could also potentially used as an anti-aging therapy to compensate for the loss of hypothalamic exosomes.

 

[BillTre]

I found the exosome thing rather interesting.
I had not heard of them before, but the pictures I linked to made the basic concept easy to understand.

I would guess that since they have been co-opted by cancers and can be used in treatments and seem to function in the hypothalamus, biology has likely already found other yet to be recognized uses for the in more natural situations.