Researchers Make Old (Mouse) Muscles Young

It’s not available at your local health food store. In fact, it’s generally not available for anyone but mice who are fortunate enough to live in the right research labs, but a drug that inhibits the protein known as FGF2 (the FGF is for fibroblast growth factor) has been shown to have an amazing ability: it can make old muscles young. Researchers at King’s College in London and at Massachusetts General Hospital have found that the number of dormant stem cells in muscle drops as animals age, a reduction that makes it harder for the muscle to repair and regenerate. They also found that the muscles in older mice had high concentrations of FGF2, which is known to stimulate stem cells to divide. Operating on the theory that the cells were dividing too much for no good reason and depleting the available pool of stem cells, the researchers administered a common FGF2 inhibitor drug to slow the division. That move appeared to halt the muscle-wasting that generally accompanies aging. Next up: humans. Read more about the research in a King’s College news release. Read the study in Nature.