Advancing Research
by funding Grant Programs and Fellowships
Driving Innovation
by guiding studies such as the FAST Initiative, the SuperAgers Initiative, and the TAME Trial
Furthering the Field
by supporting the infrastructure of three NIA Initiatives and leading the Amplifying Geroscience Initiative.
Top Breakthroughs driven by AFAR Experts
Delaying Disease by Targeting Aging
Saving Costs by Extending Healthspan
What are the Hallmarks of Aging?
How and Why Do We Age?
What is Geroscience?
What is the Longevity Dividend?
What's Next in aging research?
Impaired healing—the inability to efficiently heal wounds and recover from medical procedures—severely impacts the quality of life and medical care for elderly patients. One of the primary factors that contribute to this impaired healing in aging is dysfunction of tissue resident stem cells, which are responsible for maintaining and repairing tissue throughout life. In aging, many stem cells lose the ability to appropriately respond to cues that instruct them to build and repair tissue.
Dr. Rodgers and his team have identified a biologic pathway in stem cells that improves their ability to respond to injury and to repair tissue, and have developed a drug that targets this pathway. However, preliminary tests in mouse models of age-associated impaired healing have found that aged stem cells do not respond to this treatment.
Despite that lack of response, the experiments have provided new insights into how and why stem cells become dysfunctional in the course of aging. They suggest that aged stem cells have defects in their ability to regulate their cellular metabolism, which is critical for stem cells to respond to signals that stimulate healing and tissue repair.
Dr. Rodgers is now conducting experiments on mouse models to better understand the molecular basis for defective metabolic regulation in aged stem cells and to determine how these stem cell defects develop in the course of aging. This work will lead to approaches to circumvent the defective aspects of aged stem cells and to future therapies to improve healing in the elderly.
