A new technique appears to be able to majorly reverse cellular aging which means you may just be able to look no less than 30 years younger than you actually are, making for a massive step forward for regenerative medicine as a whole!

That’s right, as part of a new study, the skin cells of middle-aged donors were rejuvenated by three full decades, an impressive achievement talked about in the journal eLife.

A significant breakthrough in regenerative biology was also achieved back in 2007 by a Japanese researcher named Shinya Yamanaka.

Yamanaka developed an impressive technique able to turn mature cells into stem cells by just exposing them to a mix of chemicals named after the researcher, the Yamanaka Factors, for a total of 50 days.

There was one major downside however, namely the fact that this causes cells to lose their somatic identity which means that scientists aren’t able to get these reprogrammed cells to re-differentiate into mature, adult cells.

That being said the authors of this new study, tried to get around this issue by exposing human skin cells to the Yamanaka factors for a shorter period of time – 13 days!

This way, the cells were prevented from reverting into stem cells completely and stopping instead, at an intermediate stage known as the Maturation Phase.

By this phase, most of the age related markers had still been erased and the cells that had lost their somatic identity were able to regain their specialized function.

The experts explain that “With our approach, cells temporarily lose their identity as they enter the maturation phase but, importantly, reacquire their initial somatic fate when the reprogramming factors are withdrawn.”

The mechanism responsible for the successful retrieval of identity is not fully understood as of yet but the scientists speculate that it might have to do with “persisting epigenetic memory” which isn’t fully erased in the maturation phase.

The study’s author, Wolf Reik, shared via BBC that “I remember the day that I got the results back and I did not quite believe some of the cells were 30 years younger than they were supposed to be. It was a really exciting day!”

While this is great progress, the Yamanaka factors are unfortunately known to interact with genes linked to cancer so the method cannot be used in reversing aging in living humans at this point in time.

Regardless, the study’s leader stressed that “this work has very exciting implications,” adding, “Eventually, we may be able to identify genes that rejuvenate without reprogramming, and specifically target them to reduce the effects of aging.”

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