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| '''Young blood transfusion''' refers to ] specifically from a young person into an older person with the intention of creating a medicinal benefit. |
'''Young blood transfusion''' refers to ] specifically from a young person into an older person with the intention of creating a medicinal benefit. While some studies declare that benefits have been observed in mice the lack of evidence and truly rigorous test environments means that the scientific community remains highly skeptical. Furthermore, contradictory evidence has been presented which suggests that young blood may have a reduced impact compared to other sources. | ||
| ==Research== | ==Research== | ||
Revision as of 22:05, 24 May 2018
Young blood transfusion refers to transfusing blood specifically from a young person into an older person with the intention of creating a medicinal benefit. While some studies declare that benefits have been observed in mice the lack of evidence and truly rigorous test environments means that the scientific community remains highly skeptical. Furthermore, contradictory evidence has been presented which suggests that young blood may have a reduced impact compared to other sources.
Research
Evidence from two large studies in 2017 showed that the transfusion of blood from younger donors to older people was either no different from, or led to worse outcomes than, blood from older donors. Research on blood transfusion outcomes has been complicated by the lack of careful characterization of the transfusion products that have been used in clinical trials; studies had focused on how storage methods and duration might affect blood, but not on the differences among lots of blood themselves. Due to the current lack of evidence and the contradictory findings the scientific community currently views the practice as little more than snake oil.
The evidence suggesting the treatment could be beneficial was based on research done on rodents at Stanford University in which blood transfused from young mice seemed to invigorate older mice. A study published by them in 2014 detailed the results of several tests including parabiosis in mice. A second study published in 2017 investigated the use of human umbilical cord blood in elderly rodents. A company, Alkahest, was spun out of Stanford based on that work, and as of 2017 was collaborating with European pharmaceutical company Grifols to create a blood plasma-based experimental biologic drug, which they propose to test on people with Alzheimer's.
A startup company named Ambrosia has been selling "young blood transfusions" for $8,000 since 2017 under the guise of running a clinical trial, to see if such transfusions lead to changes in the blood of recipients. Jeff Bercovici wrote in Inc. that "life-extension science is a popular obsession" in Silicon Valley and that regenerative medicine was a fad which started in the 2000s. Bercovici says that there are rumours of wealthy technology bosses "spending tens of thousands of dollars for the procedures and young-person-blood". The media initially reported that technology investor Peter Thiel "was looking to harvest the blood of the young", drawing far-fetched analogies to vampirism, though claims that he had links to any such schemes were later retracted.
References
- ^ Novella, Steven (3 August 2016). "Parabiosis – The Next Snakeoil". Science-Based Medicine.
- ^ Garraud, O (August 2017). "Younger blood from older donors: Admitting ignorance and seeking stronger data and clinical trials?". Transfusion and apheresis science : official journal of the World Apheresis Association : official journal of the European Society for Haemapheresis. 56 (4): 635–636. doi:10.1016/j.transci.2017.07.002. PMID 28780993.
- Ning, S; Heddle, NM; Acker, JP (January 2018). "Exploring donor and product factors and their impact on red cell post-transfusion outcomes". Transfusion medicine reviews. 32 (1): 28–35. doi:10.1016/j.tmrv.2017.07.006. PMID 28988603.
- Makin, Simon (21 April 2017). "Fountain of Youth? Young Blood Infusions "Rejuvenate" Old Mice". Scientific American. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
- ^ de Magalhães, JP; Stevens, M; Thornton, D (November 2017). "The Business of Anti-Aging Science". Trends in biotechnology. 35 (11): 1062–1073. doi:10.1016/j.tibtech.2017.07.004. PMID 28778607.
- Drew, L (27 September 2017). "Neuroscience: The power of plasma". Nature. 549 (7673): S26 – S27. doi:10.1038/549S26a. PMID 28953857.
- Haynes, Gavin (21 August 2017). "Ambrosia: the startup harvesting the blood of the young". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
- Bercovici, Jeff. "Peter Thiel Is Very, Very Interested In Young People's Blood". Inc. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
- Buhr, Sarah (14 June 2017). "No, Peter Thiel is not harvesting the blood of the young". TechCrunch.com. Retrieved 24 May 2018.