I thought that mixing old blood with young blood was a metaphor for multigenerational encounters—like Larry King and his wife. Now, it seems that science has found a way to be scientific about it and go literal. I never use the word goolish, but there it is. Taking blood from young adults and mixing it with octogenarian blood is kinda creepy.
The experiment, led by Harvard Stem Cell Institute in Boston, showed that mixing blood from young people with the one from elderly might help reverse effects of ageing. Apparently, the blood of the young animals seemed to rejuvenate ageing blood stem cells in the bone marrows of the older mice.
Old mice also make too many myeloid blood cells, which contribute to inflammation and the development of cancer, and too few lymphoid blood cells, which orchestrate tissue repair. In this study however such age-related changes were reversed.
I’m no scientist, but I think that this will cause vampirism. I imagine a world where packs of older adults stalk young people, forcing themselves upon them until they’ve reached a state of homeostasis. It will be a dark place.
On the other hand, from a public policy standpoint, maybe we won’t have to solve the problem of how we are going to afford to house and care for elderly frail adults, because there will be none. Everyone will have super youth powers and no one will need assistance with their care.
In case you have not heard, caring for our aging population is a huge problem that we, the public, have been zombies about (ya know walking around in a mindless stupor thinking the government will care for us). So on balance, I guess if it is a choice between being a zombie and a vampire, I will choose the latter. But of course I will have to have a little “work done” so that my outer appearance is consistent with my blood, also known as the vital life force.
