Can traveling through outer space reverse the aging process?
A new study cracks the door open to just that possibility, but Colorado State University professor Susan Bailey says age-conscious adventurers shouldnt boldly go just yet.
A lot of the work is still to be done, she said.
Bailey was among a handful of researchers selected to participate in one of the most ingenious science experiments of our time. In 2015, astronaut Scott Kelly was launched into orbit to spend a year aboard the International Space Station. His identical twin brother, Mark, remained on Earth. Bailey and her colleagues studied how they changed part of a NASA project to figure out how long-term space flight impacts human health in prelude to a possible trip to Mars.
Baileys work, specifically, focused on the Kellys DNA and the critical pieces called telomeres.
What are telomeres? Theyre the little bits of genetic coding that reside on the ends of each chromosome and provide a buffer like tiny DNA bumpers for the more important stuff in the code. As people get older, their telomeres generally shorten, and many researchers believe this shortening contributes to the ways the body breaks down as it ages. As a result, telomere length has become something of an obsession among anti-aging enthusiasts.
Going into the study, Bailey assumed that the stresses of space travel would accelerate the shortening of Scott Kellys telomeres. When she and her colleagues ran the tests, though, they found the opposite occurred. While Scott Kelly was in space, his telomeres actually grew longerwhile Marks remained more or less the same length. When Scottreturned to Earth, his telomeres shrank back to the same length as Marks.
Samples taken from other astronauts appear to confirm the finding that telomeres lengthen in space, Bailey said.
You do the research, and youre always surprised, Bailey said. I couldnt be more surprised by this result.
Cue the headlines proclaiming space flight a fountain of youth.
Except that may not be whats going on.
In any one person, telomere lengths arent always the same they can vary greatly from cell to cell. Bailey said it is possible that the extra-strong radiation that astronauts are exposed to in space might weed out cells with shorter telomeres, leaving only those with long ones and creating the impression that telomere lengths grew.
Perhaps those cells are dying, and that gives you the shift, she said.
Bailey said more research is needed to learn if something about being in space actually builds up telomeres by activating the enzyme, called telomerase, that constructs them. Even if it does, thats not necessarily a good thing, she said, because telomerase activity is also key to cancer cell growth.
If theres something about space flight that is activating telomerase, youve turned on one of the steps toward carcinogenisis, Bailey said.
That means, rather than finding a tidy conclusion, Baileys research has so far turned up mostly questions. All that she knows right now for certain, she said, is that Scott and Mark Kelly were basically the same when Scott left Earth and they returned to being basically the same afterhe landed.
We do need to figure out what was happening in the middle there, she said.
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Did a CSU study find that space travel makes you younger? Not so ... - The Denver Post