Bright Sword starts with the grenade flat.

Chapter 490 The Secret of Staying Young Forever

I marvel at the power of the gene enhancement potion given by the system. You know, Qin Huairu is now over two hundred years old!

However, Qin Huairu's current physical condition, especially her skin, is still that of a normal woman in her twenties, which is the peak of her beauty.

There is no other way. The gene enhancement potion given by the system can only improve the human body's attributes by twice, that is, twice the strength, twice the speed, and twice the lifespan.

But don’t underestimate this doubled lifespan. You must know that this doubles the maximum lifespan!
Therefore, humans who have not been injected with genetic enhancement drugs have a maximum lifespan of only 150 years, but after being injected with genetic enhancement drugs, the maximum lifespan is 300 years.

Of course, it is not just that. The more crucial thing is that because the genetic enhancement agent strengthens and repairs the mitochondria of cells, when the humans on the Wandering Blue Planet are fully developed, they will no longer age.

You should know that all human beings will age, which is an inevitable process for everyone. No matter how beautiful your face is or how strong your body is, it will eventually be eroded by time.

What humans really fear is not aging itself, but being sick at a young age, and aging before having a good time.

The root cause of aging is the damage of mitochondria in cells.

If cells are regarded as factories, then mitochondria are the substations that ensure the normal operation of the factories.

More than 95% of the energy needed by the human body actually comes from mitochondria, especially those cells with higher metabolic levels, such as myocardial cells, liver cells and nerve cells. There are thousands of mitochondria in each cell.

You should know that the human body cannot directly utilize the nutrients in the food we eat, such as carbohydrates, proteins, fats, etc., but must go through mitochondria.

The mitochondria within the cells convert these into adenosine triphosphate, or ATP for short. ATP is the electrical current of cellular energy that can be transmitted to where the body needs it.

However, in the process of mitochondria synthesizing ATP, 1% to % of oxygen is converted into free radicals that attack the mitochondria, causing a continuous decline in the ability to supply energy.

Therefore, when cells do not obtain enough energy, they will gradually shut down various unimportant functions, such as stopping normal metabolism, stopping DNA repair, stopping replicating new cells, etc., and then aging and various health problems will occur quietly.

Due to the lack of intervention methods that can directly enter mitochondria, before the emergence of Liu Xiu's gene enhancement agent, the only treatment for mitochondrial damage was NMN, a precursor of a coenzyme involved in energy synthesis, which indirectly improves ATP synthesis capacity. However, the cost of improving ATP energy synthesis capacity may be the production of more free radicals, which ultimately accelerates cell aging.

However, with the genetic enhancement drug, the mitochondria of the wandering humans on the Blue Star were directly changed, increasing their self-repair function.

Therefore, when the humans wandering on the blue planet have fully developed their bodies, they don't have to worry about damage to their mitochondria that would prevent them from surviving until their telomeres are completely consumed.

You should know that before the use of gene enhancement drugs, 99.99% of the humans on the Wandering Blue Star could not live to the life limit granted by telomeres, and many people could not even live to half of it. After all, before Liu Xiu's gene enhancement drugs became popular, the average life expectancy of humans on the Wandering Blue Star was only around seventy years old.

It just barely reaches half of the theoretical maximum lifespan of telomeres. The reason for this, except for some accidental deaths, is naturally largely because the damage to mitochondria leads to decreased cell function and thus aging and death, rather than the cell's telomeres being consumed and unable to divide and die.

Although both telomeres and mitochondria can affect human life span, their working principles are completely different. You should know that mitochondria and telomeres are two important concepts in cell biology.

Mitochondria are an organelle within cells that are mainly responsible for energy conversion and supply, while telomeres are special structures at the ends of chromosomes that are related to cell replication and aging.

Mitochondria are an important organelle in eukaryotic cells. Their main function is to produce energy required by cells through the process of oxidative phosphorylation.

This process involves the oxidation of food molecules such as glucose, releasing energy, which is used to drive the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate, the main energy currency in cells.

The shape and number of mitochondria vary depending on cell type and function. They are usually rod-shaped, tubular or spherical and are interconnected by a mitochondrial network. In addition to energy production, mitochondria are also involved in many other cellular processes, including calcium homeostasis, apoptosis and signal transduction.

Telomeres are special structures at the ends of chromosomes, consisting of repetitive non-coding DNA sequences and proteins bound to them.

The main function of telomeres is to protect the ends of chromosomes from being mistakenly recognized as DNA damage, thereby avoiding triggering DNA repair mechanisms and causing chromosomal instability.

In addition, telomeres are also involved in regulating the replication capacity of cells. Every time a cell divides, the telomeres shorten to a certain length. When the telomeres shorten to a certain extent, the cell will stop replicating and enter a state of aging. Therefore, the length of telomeres can be regarded as an indicator of the cell's replication potential.

Therefore, mitochondria and telomeres play a vital role in cell biology. Mitochondria are the "energy factories" in cells, responsible for providing cells with the necessary energy; while telomeres are the protective structures at the ends of chromosomes, which are closely related to the replication and aging process of cells.

But although it seems that telomeres are more important to human longevity, before Liu Xiu took out the genetic enhancement agent, most of the research on biological longevity on the Wandering Blue Star was focused on telomeres.

For example, many biologists are racking their brains to figure out how to extend telomeres in order to achieve a higher theoretical lifespan.

However, few people know that mitochondria, the energy factory within cells, are actually more important.

After all, human cells will divide between forty and sixty times depending on the length of their telomeres, and each division lasts a little more than two years, so the theoretical maximum human lifespan is between eighty and one hundred and fifty.

However, you should know that cells will only show signs of aging when they can no longer divide. That is to say, if a person's maximum lifespan is 150 years old, then he will show signs of aging after the age of 148, which is after the last cell division.

However, many people show signs of aging just after they are over 20 years old, which means that humans show signs of aging just after they have completed their development.

This is naturally different from telomere cell replication. Of course, the reason for this is naturally because the mitochondria are damaged and the energy supply is insufficient, so the replicated cells naturally appear weak and aged.

However, after Liu Xiu obtained the gene enhancement drug and injected it into Qin Huairu, it not only increased the length of Qin Huairu's telomeres, but also doubled the number of Qin Huairu's body cell divisions to more than one hundred times.

(End of this chapter)