The Naked mole rat is a 3 to 13 inches-long rodent with an almost hairless appearance.
Despite the odd appearance, the most curious feature of the naked mole rat is its longevity. Compared with other rodents with a lifespan of 3-4 years, naked mole rats can live for more than 30 years without any physiological deterioration, which generally affects most animals when they become older.
Physiological deterioration is a general designation of disease which is caused by aging. In this case, the naked mole rats on one level might have immunity to aging. This fact suggests the possible treatment for deterioration, such as cancer and dementia, in the human body. Just like what Sherif El-Khamisy, a professor of Cancer Therapeutics at the University of Bradford, told MNT :“Their(the naked mole rats) proficient ability to deal with threats to the genome is remarkable. They live remarkably longer than [other] animals of the same size and weight, and they do so without experiencing aging-associated diseases.”
Perfecting cell death: the latest finding according to the naked mole rat’s special property.
In humans, it is the accumulation of senescent cells over time that causes degenerative diseases to develop. For example, blockages Trusted sources that prevent the removal of senescent cells by the immune system are a hallmark of some age-related disorders, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
Interestingly, naked mole rats have far fewer of these age-deteriorated cells.
In most animals, the immune system clears the senescent cells. However, in mole rats, the aged cells die spontaneously, so build-ups never occur.
Well, does this finding mean the end of human aging? After doing enough research, it is definitely possible for scientists to adopt similar systems in humans or use these markers as a predictive tool to say ‘this person is more likely to develop dementia or cancer as they age’. However, I believe that it is still too early to translate this extreme finding unique among so many kinds of animals into humans. Even though people already have a glimpse of the longevity and disease resistance mechanisms that these species have, there is still a lot of work to be done before we can eventually make it beneficial to humans. Just like what Prof. Magalhães notes: “We know very little about causes of death in naked mole rats [as] very few old animals have been studied.” There is a long way to go, and more research is needed to understand what happens to naked mole rats in later life.