this narration is wrong

Chapter 210 Can humans live forever?

"Guo Yuan, do you know E. coli?" Lin Yumo continued to ask.

"Of course I know. The scientific name of Escherichia coli is Escherichia coli. Under certain conditions, it can cause gastrointestinal infection or urinary tract infection in humans and various animals." Guo Yuan replied.

"This is common people's understanding of E. coli, and my teacher's friend is not studying E. coli infection, but other aspects.

Escherichia coli is the same as the cyanobacteria that appeared on the earth 26 billion years ago. It is the simplest single-celled organism, and its reproduction method is the simplest binary fission, that is, after copying the genetic material, one into two.

The two daughter cells after division carry exactly the same genetic information, and there is no obvious difference in size and shape, but the two are not exactly the same individual.

Bacteria will be affected by the environment during the growth process, and the cell membrane, cytoplasm and even DNA will be damaged.

But when dividing, these damages are not shared between the two daughter cells, but one of the daughter cells inherits the damage, while the other daughter cell is a brand new individual without any damage.

The individual that inherited the damage will die soon, and the new daughter cells will grow up healthily until the next division. This is the famous trash can theory.

So Guo Yuan, do you think the new daughter cells are still the original cells? "

"The DNA information is completely consistent, so it should be considered!" Guo Yuan thought for a while and said.

"No, it's not, or not entirely, in a sense, this is a kind of biological reproduction.

If Escherichia coli is regarded as a human being, the individual with various injuries is the mother, and the completely healthy individual is the daughter.

In other words, the E. coli mother traded her own death for the birth of her own child.

But the reproduction of multicellular organisms, such as us humans, is not as simple as that of single-celled organisms. Our reproduction takes a long time.

As I said just now, E. coli will divide because the living environment has brought irreversible damage to it, so it will divide.

Human cells will naturally suffer irreversible damage due to the living environment. During the time we wait to reproduce, what should the cells in our body do? "

"Can't human cells repair themselves?" Guo Yuan replied subconsciously.

After saying this, Guo Yuan was stunned. He seemed to understand what the narration just said about the longer lifespan of the cell's self-repair mechanism.

"It seems that you have already thought of something, yes, this is the crux of the problem!

Cells need to be kept as healthy as possible before human development reaches reproductive time, but environmental damage will not stop due to slow reproduction, and the self-repair ability of cells can be reflected at this time.

The self-repair of cells has actually been working at full strength since we were born. It will replace the degenerated protein that carries all the damaged cells after our second division, repair the broken DNA caused by radiation, ultraviolet rays, and various accidental influences, suture Damaged cell membranes.

This process continues until we pass the fertile age.

In Huaxia's Chinese medicine theory, some injuries suffered when a person is old will only be reflected when he is old.

This is not to say that these injuries do not exist at a young age, but because the cell's repair mechanism is constantly repairing these injuries.

But after the age of human reproduction, the task of the cell repair mechanism has been completed, and we no longer go all out to work. At this time, we are returning to the previous trash can theory. Without the cell repair mechanism, the cells in our body will also be like the large intestine Like bacilli, those damaged cells die after binary division and are then excreted from the body.

As more and more cells are cleaned out, human body functions will become worse and worse. This is the reason why we will age and die at the cellular level. "

Guo Yuan now fully understands what it means that the cell's self-repair mechanism has a longer lifespan.

At the same time, I also know that Fan Shigang has created a thing that is against the sky.

Guo Yuan spent a few minutes digesting Lin Yumo's words, and then asked: "Then can the cells repair themselves all the time so that we can live forever?"

"Many biologists are doing research in this area, but so far, no one has made a breakthrough, including my teacher's friend.

However, according to my teacher and friend’s vision, simple delaying of aging can be done without our medicines. The self-repair of human cells is limited by the age of childbearing, that is, the self-repair ability of cells before the age of 18 to 30 is the best. strong.

Human fertility is a choice of the environment. At this time, as long as the body is constantly stimulated, the self-repair mechanism of the cells can also be extended.

For example, food intake, on the premise of ensuring that there will be no malnutrition, do not eat too full, about 6 to 7 points full, so that the body will feel that you are hungry for a long time, and the environment you live in is not good. Suitable for fertility, cell self-repair will also be prolonged.

Another example is regular exercise, which will also make the body feel that you are in danger and need to run for a long time. Such an environment is not suitable for future generations, and the self-repair of cells will also be prolonged.

But this kind of tricking the body can't last long enough to prolong the cell's self-repair mechanism, which requires a special drug, which is what his project is studying.

However, it turns out that this kind of drug does not exist. After half a year of research in our laboratory, there was no breakthrough, so we gave up. Fan Shigang's team was responsible for the finishing work after the experiment.

He also asked my teacher to leave after finishing the work. "

【Lin Yumo doesn't know about Fan Shigang's research results. In fact, the drug developed by Fan Shigang can prolong the lifespan of the cell's self-repair mechanism, but it is not yet immortal, at most it can only delay aging. 】

"How long can this drug prolong the cell's self-repair mechanism?" Guo Yuan asked in his heart.

[At present, it is about 10 years. If a 30-year-old person takes Fan Shigang’s medicine every day, the life span of his cell self-repair mechanism will be extended by about 10 years. That is to say, the person’s body function can be maintained at The state of 10 years old, but after 30 years, the medicine has no effect.

Moreover, this drug is only effective when the cell self-repair mechanism is relatively complete, that is, before the age of 40, and it has no effect after the age of 40. 】

"How did they come to this conclusion in the time span of 10 years?" Guo Yuan continued to ask in his heart.

[They are converted based on the lifespan of different animals. The average lifespan of humans in the world is now 71.3 years old. (Here is the data on the average human lifespan published by the World Health Organization in 2019.) Some developed countries with good material conditions will far exceed 71.3 years old , but there are also people in some countries who cannot reach this life expectancy.

Therefore, Fan Shigang calculated according to the average human life expectancy of 70 years.

From Fan Shigang's discovery of the drug to the start of the experiment, they used 27 species of mammals and converted their maximum life expectancy into the average human life span for testing. The results were all about 10 years.

Later they applied the drug to primates, and the conclusion was similar. 】

"Then can this 10 years be extended?" Guo Yuan continued to ask.

[Theoretically, it is possible. From the perspective of human body structure, the limit of human lifespan should be 150 years old, but looking at the whole world now, no one can live for such a long time.

Even though there are environmental factors, more of it is the choice of the creature itself. Human beings, like other creatures, will begin to decline after completing their reproductive instincts. This is to leave more resources for their offspring. Let future generations survive better.

Survival and reproduction are the instincts of all living things, the most primitive desires and needs of living things, and everything we do now is for survival and reproduction.

This most primitive instinct is irreversible, so the cellular self-repair mechanism will only work until the human is infertile.

To prolong its working time, it is necessary to work hard on the most primitive instinct of human beings. 】

After listening to the narration, Guo Yuan was silent. Although he is only 25 years old this year, he is still in the prime of life, and he has never thought about the issue of aging.

But Lin Yumo was born in 94, and she is 29 years old this year. Lin Yumo is very concerned about her age.

If there is this drug from Fan Shigang, Lin Yumo will not have to worry about getting old in the next 10 years.

Of course, the significance of this drug is not only that, its commercial value is too huge.

　It’s a big headache to write this chapter. This chapter specifically asked me my friend who is studying for a Ph.D. in biology at Fudan. He sent me a lot of information. It took 3 hours to complete it. ring.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)