“返老還童”也許不是沒可能

A new study shows that scientists might be able to not only slow the process of aging but actually reverse it, Benjamin Button-style.

一項新的研究表明，科學家可能不僅能夠減緩衰老的進程，而且能夠真正逆轉(zhuǎn)衰老，像本杰明巴頓一樣。

Volunteers in a California study were given a cocktail of three common drugs for one year– a growth hormone and two diabetes medications. Scientists had been testing the drugs in the hope of regenerating the thymus gland.

在加州進行的一項研究中，志愿者們被要求服用三種常用藥物的混合物，為期一年——一種生長激素和兩種糖尿病藥物?？茖W家們一直在測試這些藥物，希望能使胸腺再生。

But upon further analysis, they found that participants had lost an average of 2.5 years on their “epigenetic clock,” measured by analyzing marks on a person’s genomes, according to the journal Nature. Participants’ immune systems also showed signs of rejuvenation.

但根據(jù)《自然》(Nature)雜志的報道，在進一步分析之后，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，參與者平均失去了2.5年的“表觀遺傳時鐘”。“表觀遺傳時鐘”是通過分析一個人的基因組標記來測量的。參與者的免疫系統(tǒng)也顯示出恢復活力的跡象。

Even the scientists who conducted the study were shocked by the results. “I’d expected to see slowing down of the clock, but not a reversal,” UCLA researcher Steve Horvath told Nature. “That felt kind of futuristic.”

即使是進行這項研究的科學家也對結(jié)果感到震驚。加州大學洛杉磯分校的研究人員史蒂夫·霍瓦特告訴《自然》雜志說:“我本以為時鐘會慢下來，但并沒有倒轉(zhuǎn)過來。”“感覺有點未來感。”

Researchers warn the findings are preliminary: the study only included nine participants and did not include a control group. But if further research confirms the findings, the impact on health care and society’s relationship with aging as a whole could be massive.

研究人員警告說，這些發(fā)現(xiàn)只是初步的:這項研究只包括9名參與者，沒有包括對照組。但如果進一步的研究證實了這一發(fā)現(xiàn)，這將對醫(yī)療保健以及整個社會與老齡化的關(guān)系產(chǎn)生巨大的影響。

The researchers are planning a larger study with more diverse participants by age, gender and ethnicity and the three drugs are being tested independently to determine specific effects.

研究人員正計劃進行一項更大的研究，參與者的年齡、性別和種族也更加多樣化，目前正在對這三種藥物進行獨立測試，以確定其具體療效。