The story starts with an observation , made a few years ago , that senescent cells often produce a molecule called p16ink4a .
故事还得从几年前的一项实验开始讲起,他们观察到衰老的细胞通常会产生一种叫p16ink4a的分子。
First , the researchers cleared senescent cells from the mice throughout their lives-giving the drug every 3 days beginning as soon as the animals were weaned .
首先,研究人员从动物断奶开始,每3天给一次药物,清除衰老细胞。
Senescent cells make up only a small portion of cells -- some 5 % or less -- in the tissue of elderly people , but their effects can be widespread , the researchers said .
研究人员说,在老年人的身体组织中,衰老细胞仅占很小的比例,大约为5%或更少,但却造成了广泛的影响。
Extensive research is still necessary to test whether the clearance of senescent cells would have the same effect in mice that age normally and whether there are different effects in different tissues , such as the brain as compared with muscle tissue , said dr. sierra of the national institute on aging .
Another question is whether continuous clearance of senescent cells is needed to produce health benefits , or whether intermittent removal -- a spring cleaning of sorts -- is just as effective , the study 's authors said .
By contrast , actually eliminating senescent cells may be a logical extension of the process of shutting them down ( they certainly cannot cause cancer if they are dead ) , and thus may not have adverse consequences .
Since the work relied on genetically engineered mice , it 's not directly translatable into humans , van deursen says . Researchers , however , can now screen drugs to find compounds that might activate cell death in senescent cells , he says , or that might turn the immune system against senescent cells .