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According to new research from Tel Aviv University and Shamir Medical Center, hyperbaric oxygen treatments can induce significant senolytic effects in healthy aging adults.
Hachmo et al. demonstrate that the aging process can be reversed at the basic cellular-molecular level.
Aging can be characterized by the progressive loss of physiological integrity, with consequent reduction of functions and susceptibility to disease and death. This biological deterioration is considered a major risk factor for cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease, among others.
At the cellular level, there are two key hallmarks of the aging process: the shortening of telomere length and cellular senescence.
Telomeres are tandem nucleotide repeats located at the ends of chromosomes that maintain genomic stability. They shorten during replication due to the inherent inability to fully replicate the end of the lagging DNA strand.
Telomere length, which measures between 4 and 15 kilobases, gradually shortens by 20-40 bases per year and is associated with various diseases, low physical performance and cortical thinning of the brain.
When telomere length reaches a critical length, cells cannot replicate and progress towards senescence or programmed cell death.
Cellular senescence is a cell cycle arrest that can be caused by telomere shortening as well as other telomere-length-independent stimuli associated with aging, such as damage to non-telomeric DNA.
The main purpose of senescence is to prevent the spread of damaged cells by triggering their elimination through the immune system.
The accumulation of senescent cells with aging reflects an increase in the generation of these cells and / or a decrease in their clearance, which in turn aggravates the damage and contributes to aging.
“Telomere shortening is now considered the ‘Holy Grail’ of the biology of aging,” said Professor Shai Efrati, a researcher at the Sackler School of Medicine and Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University and founder and director of the Sagol Center of Hyperbaric Medicine at Shamir Medical Center.
“Researchers around the world are trying to develop pharmacological and environmental interventions that enable telomere elongation.”
Professor Efrati and colleagues found that a unique protocol of high pressure oxygen treatments in a pressure chamber can reverse the two main aging processes.
‘For many years our team has been engaged in hyperbaric research and therapy – treatments based on protocols of exposure to high pressure oxygen at various concentrations within a pressure chamber,’ said Professor Efrati.
“Our findings over the years included improvement in brain function damaged by age, stroke or brain injury.”
“In this study, we wanted to examine the impact of hyperbaric oxygen treatments (HBOT) on healthy, independent aging adults and find out if such treatments can slow, stop or even reverse the normal aging process at the cellular level.”
In the study, the scientists exposed 35 healthy individuals aged 64 and over to a series of 60 hyperbaric sessions over a 90-day period.
Each participant provided blood samples before, during and at the end of the treatments and some time after the conclusion of the treatment series.
The authors then analyzed various immune cells in the blood and compared the results.
Their results indicated that the treatments actually reversed the aging process in two of its main aspects.
Telomeres at the ends of the chromosomes became longer instead of shorter, at a rate of 20% -38% for different cell types.
The percentage of senescent cells in the overall cell population was significantly reduced – by 11% -37% depending on the cell type.
‘Our HBOT protocol was able to achieve this by demonstrating that the aging process can actually be reversed at the basic cellular-molecular level,’ said Professor Efrati.
“Up until now, interventions such as lifestyle modifications and strenuous exercise have been shown to have an inhibitory effect on telomere shortening,” said Dr. Amir Hadanny, director of medical research at the Sagol Center for Hyperbaric. Medicine and Research at Shamir Medical Center.
“But in our study, just three months of HBOT was able to lengthen telomeres at speeds well beyond any currently available intervention or lifestyle modification.”
“With this groundbreaking study, we have opened a door for further research into the cellular impact of HBOT and its potential to reverse the aging process.”
The study was published in the journal Aging.
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Y. Hachmo et al. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy increases telomere length and decreases immunosenescence in isolated blood cells: a prospective study. Aging, published online November 18, 2020; doi: 10.18632 / aging. 202188
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