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cover of episode Bone marrow in the skull plays a surprisingly important role in ageing

Bone marrow in the skull plays a surprisingly important role in ageing

2024/11/13
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B
Bong In-ko
D
Dan Fox
G
Guy Leckenby
L
Lizzie Gibney
Topics
Lizzie Gibney和Nick Pertrucciano：报道了关于头骨骨髓在衰老过程中作用的最新研究，指出头骨骨髓与其他骨骼中的骨髓在衰老方面的表现不同，并对健康具有重要意义。 Bong In-ko：研究发现成年小鼠头骨中的骨髓会随着年龄增长而显著增加，并且其造血功能会持续到动物寿命的尽头，这与其他骨髓相比，其造血功能随年龄增长并不会下降，反而会增加。头骨骨髓的扩张体现在物理尺寸和血管数量的增加上，对全身免疫系统有益。头骨骨髓的扩张有助于对抗大脑的炎症，这可能是因为其造血干细胞不会引发炎症，并且头骨骨髓内皮细胞保持健康状态。人体研究结果支持了小鼠实验的发现，即头骨骨髓会随着年龄增长而扩张。这项研究首次表明，头骨骨髓与其他骨髓在功能上存在显著差异，促使人们重新思考骨髓的异质性以及骨髓血管系统的功能，扩展了人们对某些器官或组织如何抵抗衰老的理解。 Lizzie Gibney：对Bong In-ko的研究进行了详细的介绍和解读，并补充了相关信息，例如头骨骨髓与大脑的联系以及其在免疫学中的作用。

Deep Dive

Key Insights

Why does skull bone marrow play a significant role in aging?

Skull bone marrow expands and remains functional with age, compensating for the declining hematopoietic function in other bones. It also helps counteract neuroinflammation in the brain, making it more resistant to aging compared to other bone marrow compartments.

How does skull bone marrow differ from other bone marrow compartments in aging?

While most bone marrow compartments experience declining hematopoietic function and increased inflammation with age, skull bone marrow expands and maintains its healthy function, contributing more to systemic immunity and resisting inflammation.

What role does skull bone marrow play in the brain's immune response?

Skull bone marrow is directly connected to the brain via channels to the meninges, allowing immune cells to interact with the brain. It helps counteract neuroinflammation, which increases with aging.

What did the study reveal about skull bone marrow in humans?

The study found that skull bone marrow expands in humans with age, as seen in CT scans of subjects. This expansion was observed in both males and females, mirroring findings in mice.

Why is lead-205 considered a potential dating tool for the Solar System?

Lead-205 has a half-life of 17 million years and is produced in stars, making it a candidate for dating ancient astronomical processes, including the formation of the Solar System.

What challenge did researchers overcome to use lead-205 for dating?

Researchers mimicked stellar conditions to determine how much lead-205 escapes stars, resolving uncertainty about its abundance in the interstellar medium and enabling its potential use as a dating tool.

How did researchers measure lead-205 decay in stars?

They indirectly measured thallium-205 decay, which is the product of lead-205 decay, by recreating stellar plasma conditions in a lab and counting the number of thallium ions that decayed into lead ions.

What implications does the lead-205 study have for understanding the Solar System's formation?

The study allows researchers to estimate how much lead-205 was present when the Solar System formed, enabling more accurate dating of the collapse process that led to the formation of the Sun and planets.

How did Google use smartphones to map the ionosphere?

Google used data from 40 million Android smartphones to measure ionospheric electron density by analyzing the time difference between GPS signals of different frequencies, improving ionosphere mapping and GPS accuracy.

What ethical concerns arose from a scientist treating her own cancer with a virus?

Publishers were hesitant to publish the case study due to concerns that it might encourage others to self-experiment without the necessary expertise or safeguards, despite the treatment being successful for the scientist.

Chapters
Research suggests that skull bone marrow plays a crucial role in maintaining health during aging, unlike bone marrow in other parts of the body which deteriorates with age. This discovery could have significant implications for understanding and potentially improving the aging process.
  • Skull bone marrow expands with age, unlike marrow in other bones.
  • Skull bone marrow maintains its hematopoietic function and increases its contribution to systemic immunity.
  • The study suggests skull bone marrow may help counteract neuroinflammation associated with aging.

Shownotes Transcript

00:46 The role of skull bone marrow in ageing

During ageing, bone marrow in the skull becomes an increasingly important site of blood-cell production. This is in stark contrast to most bones where the ability of marrow to make blood and immune cells declines. Studies in mice and humans showed that ageing results in skull bone-marrow expanding, and in mice this marrow was more resistant to inflammation and other hallmarks of ageing. The team behind the work hope by understanding this process better it may be possible to help organs become more resistant to ageing.

*Research Article: *Koh et al.)

08:56 Research Highlights

Elderly big brown bats show remarkable resistance to age-related hearing loss, and why search-engine algorithms may not be the main driver steering people towards misinformation.

*Research Highlight: *No hearing aids needed: bats’ ears stay keen well into old age)

*Research Highlight: *Don’t blame search engines for sending users to unreliable sites)

11:38 How to make lead a useful material to date the Solar System

Researchers have overcome a major hurdle preventing the radioactive isotope lead-205 from being used as a ‘clock’ to date the age of the Solar System. 205Pb is made in some stars and thanks to its half life of around 17 million years has been proposed as a potential way to date ancient astronomical processes. However, exactly how much 205Pb can escape a star were unclear, limiting its dating potential. Now, researchers have mimicked the conditions seen in stars to pin down how much 205Pb can escape into space, paving the way for its use as a clock.

*Research Article: *Leckenby et al.)

19:51 Briefing Chat

How millions of Android smartphones were used to map the Earth’s ionosphere, and the ethical implications of a virologist who treated her own cancer.

*Nature: *Google uses millions of smartphones to map the ionosphere)

*Nature: *This scientist treated her own cancer with viruses she grew in the lab)

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