GDF11 tagged posts

Link made between Genetics, Aging

Rob Pazdro, left, and Yang Zhou led a study looking at a new pathway by which genetics regulates aging and disease. Credit: Cal Powell/University of Georgia

Rob Pazdro, left, and Yang Zhou led a study looking at a new pathway by which genetics regulates aging and disease. Credit: Cal Powell/University of Georgia

Uni of Georgia scientists have shown a hormone instrumental in the aging process is under genetic control, introducing a new pathway by which genetics regulates aging and disease. Previous studies have found that blood levels of this hormone, growth differentiation factor 11, decrease over time. Restoration of GDF11 reverses cardiovascular aging in old mice and leads to muscle and brain rejuvenation, a discovery that was listed as one of the top 10 breakthroughs in science in 2014.

Scientists in the UGA College of Family and Consumer Sciences have now discovered that levels of this hormone are determined by genetics, representing ano...

Read More