I read a really interesting artilcle in the Science section of the New York Times last week that deals with aging in animals. When you get to be my age, articles about extending healthy life tend to catch my aging eyes.

This one was really interesting, and may eventually apply to both people and pets. The article reported on a study done in lab mice where certain types of cells, called senescent cells, were programmed to self destruct.

The results were very interesting.

Senescent cells are basically old cells that are about to die. The cells in our bodies have a life span just like us and they are constantly being replaced. When we are young senescent cells are removed and replaced very efficiently. As we age the process slows down and these cells tend to accumulate in all the tissues in the body.

If you have an arthritic knee you have lot's of senescent cartilage cells accumulated in the affected joint. These cells don't work properly and become sources of chronic, low level inflammation. According to these researchers it's the accumulation of senescent cells that are responsible for many of the signs or aging.

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester NY worked with a strain of mice that are genetically prone to early death due to heart failure. They gave these mice a drug that resulted in the purging of senescent cells and the results were pretty dramatic.

The "purged" mice did not show the signs of aging that were evident in the control group. No cataracts, no loss of muscle mass, no loss of fat tissue in the skin, all of which are typical signs of aging. Just look at the two mice in the photo with the article. Pretty obvious which one was purged of senescent cells.

The jury is still out on whether this actually is capable of extending life. The Rochester group plans to study that next using mice with normal life spans, but imagine the potential. If we were able to do the same things with middle aged dogs; inject them with something that forces the death and removal of senescent cells, we could potentially extend their healthy life.

And if it works in dogs and people, we could extend our healthy lives together. I might even be able to extend my carreer as amountain bike racer too.

No word yet on whether pet insurance will cover this procedure. We'll have to ask Dr Bill what he thinks about that.