{"id":2267,"date":"2026-06-16T18:07:52","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T18:07:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=2267"},"modified":"2026-06-16T18:07:52","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T18:07:52","slug":"sea-squirts-may-offer-insights-into-human-aging-and-exercise-stanford-ucsd-researchers-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=2267","title":{"rendered":"Sea squirts may offer insights into human aging and exercise, Stanford, UCSD researchers say"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Researchers from UC San Diego and Stanford University conducted tests on small gelatinous sea creatures for insights on aging and cellular rejuvenation. What they found might have some bearing on humans.<\/p>\n

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Sea squirts are the subject of a new study published last month in the scientific journal PNAS<\/em>. They share more genetic material with humans than you might think.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf you want to study the stem cell and differentiation, we can\u2019t study in humans that well because we can\u2019t do experiments in humans,\u201d said Debashis Sahoo, an associate professor of pediatrics in the UC San Diego School of Medicine and a co-author of the study. \u201cWe can\u2019t make genetic manipulations and study how and what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enter sea squirts.<\/p>\n

The spineless creatures share about 70% of the genetic material humans have, making them \u201cthe legacy of a common ancestor from roughly 500 million years ago,\u201d according to a statement from UCSD and Stanford.<\/p>\n

Sea squirts are considered especially useful in questions about human immune systems and stem cells. Sea squirts are able to rebuild all of their body tissue in roughly a week.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to make some connection to vertebrates,\u201d said Sahoo, who also is an associate professor of computer science at UCSD. \u201cSo these sea squirts are right in the intersection of invertebrates and vertebrates. It\u2019s basically a way to connect how vertebrate systems emerged.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In the study, scientists introduced sea squirts to a brief series of electrical pulses. The results were dramatic, long-lasting health improvements that have the potential to expand their lifespans, according to the researchers.<\/p>\n

The work began in 2020 when Stanford stem cell scientist Jos Domen, a co-senior author of the study, used a pacemaker \u2014 commonly used to treat abnormal heart rhythms \u2014 to boost the pace of the creatures\u2019 heart.<\/p>\n

Of the sea squirts that received the treatment, 75% were alive and healthy a year later. Of their untreated peers, only 20% survived.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the same way electricity can help reboot the heart into a regular sinus rhythm, we found that electricity triggers a reboot in sea squirts at the gene expression level,\u201d Sahoo said. \u201cGene activity reduces, but then comes back even stronger, similar to what happens in humans after a hard workout.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n<\/div>\n

The findings, Sahoo said, tie into his previous research on exercise and its effects on the human body.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw that in humans, when you do acute exercise, [in which] somebody who has not done exercise for a while did one hour of strenuous exercise, their macrophages [cells in the immune system that destroy pathogens] will be reactive,\u201d Sahoo said. \u201c[For] somebody who is doing exercise for a long time, we saw that their macrophages become tolerant over time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe assumed these electrical pulses [for\u00a0the sea squirt] would be equivalent to doing exercise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similar treatments in humans are not imminent. But scientists say they\u2019re optimistic that the findings can yield helpful insights.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn obvious question is whether this can be applied to humans,\u201d Domen said. \u201cThis would take a different form than the sea squirt exeriments and would focus on specific cell populations, like blood stem cells that can be stimulated in a similar way.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Sahoo, it raises the question of what happens in our bodies when we exercise and how we can improve our performance based on that knowledge.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to optimize ourselves in various ways,\u201d he said. \u201cWe talk about athletes, soldiers or any other [people in] extreme situations. We want to get to the extreme.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis also connects to how aging destroys some of the system and what kind of damage is accumulated over aging that we could maybe fix. Maybe we can\u2019t make it reverse \u2026 but at least if you can fix it in some ways, it can affect diseases.\u201d \u2666<\/p>\n

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Sea squirts are considered especially useful in questions about human immune systems and stem cells. 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