Researchers have discovered a de-ageing technique that made skin cells 30 years younger

• Indian-origin doctor, Diljeet Gill used a new technique to make skin cells younger.
• The research included 3 middle-aged people (50 years old).
• Earlier, Shinya Yamanaka genetically reprogrammed the mouse skin cells.

Diljeet Gill, a postdoctoral candidate at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge and his colleagues have developed a way to reverse the ageing process in skin cells by 30 years. The method was published on 8 April in the journal eLife ‘Multi-omic rejuvenation of human cells by maturation phase transient reprogramming’.

The research was done by using ‘maturation phase transient reprogramming’ to fibroblasts which is a common type of skin cell. The team took skin cells from three middle-aged donors, who aged around 50 years old. Once the research was completed, they compared them to younger skin cells from donors aged 20 to 22. They found skin cells were similar to younger cells, genetically and chemically.

Further, the team also found that the techniques had affected genes related to age-related diseases such as cataracts and Alzheimer's. In addition, Gill and his team also examined the behaviour of skin cells that if why could also act like younger skin cells. According to them, when they wounded a layer of cells they found that the rejuvenated cells quickly moved to fill the gap similar to the behaviour of younger skin cells.

This is not the first successful research on de-ageing cells. Earlier, Shinya Yamanaka, a Nobel prize-winning stem cell researcher, genetically reprogrammed the mouse skin cells and turned them into induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPSCs, back in 2006. These cells type had the potential to form any cell type in the body. Yamanaka's method took 50 days and completely reprograms cells to the biological age of an embryo. Gill's method only took 13 days.

In a statement, Gill said, “Our results represent a big step forward in our understanding of cell reprogramming. We have proved that cells can be rejuvenated without losing their function and that rejuvenation looks to restore some function to old cells.”

A stem cell biologist and co-founder of the skincare company Heraux, Ben Van Handel told Live Science, “technique will never be used in a clinical setting as it is currently a type of gene therapy that would be impossible to use in humans." According to him, there is still a lot of concern about these cells becoming cancerous and controlling how far back in age the rejuvenation process goes.”

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