Scientists discover clues to aging and healing from a squishy sea creature

Originally published by NIH/National Human Genome Research Institute on June 30, 2023


Hydractinia's regeneration driving stem cells are stored in the lower trunk of the animal's body, far from the mouth. Credit: Darryl Leja, National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI)

Insights into healing and aging were discovered by National Institutes of Health researchers and their collaborators, who studied how a tiny sea creature regenerates an entire new body from only its mouth. The researchers sequenced RNA from Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus, a small, tube-shaped animal that lives on the shells of hermit crabs. Just as the Hydractinia were beginning to regenerate new bodies, the researchers detected a molecular signature associated with the biological process of aging, also known as senescence.

According to the study published in Cell Reports, Hydractinia demonstrates that the fundamental biological processes of healing and aging are intertwined, providing new perspective on how aging evolved.

"Studies like this that explore the biology of unusual organisms reveal both how universal many biological processes are and how much we have yet to understand about their functions, relationships and evolution," said Charles Rotimi, Ph.D., director of the Intramural Research Program at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of NIH. "Such findings have great potential for providing novel insights into human biology."

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