Harvard stem cell biologist Amy Wagers, cardiologist Richard Lee of the
Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and their
colleagues claim that a specific protein, GDF11, may explain young
blood’s beneficial effects. They have reported that blood levels of
GDF11 drop in mice as the animals get older and that injecting
old mice with GDF11 can partially reverse age-related thickening
of the heart. In two papers last year in Science, Wagers and collaborators
also reported that GDF11 can rejuvenate the rodents’ muscles and brains.
