How might stem cells increase my life span?

How might stem cells increase my life span?

Aubrey de Grey (Chairman, Methuselah Foundation) gives expert video advice on: What are 'life extension therapies'?; When did life extension studies first begin?; What is 'rejuvenation therapy'? and more...

Stem cells as an aspect of rejuvenation therapy, are certainly going to be very important because they're required as a way to replace cells that die, and that are not naturally replaced by the division of other cells in the body. They will not be terribly important for tissues in which normal cell replacement happens perfectly naturally. For example, the liver. But in tissues like the heart, or some parts of the brain that are particularly susceptible to losing cells, or also some slightly more esoteric tissues, like the thymus. These tissues shrink with age, or in some cases they don't actually shrink physically, but they'll die, and the other cells around them just become larger, and the structure gets weaker as a result. Sometimes the tissue just fills up with fibrous material that isn't cells at all. The effect in all cases, is that the tissue the cells make up, doesn't work so well, and we have to do something about that. Stem cells are essentially precursors of the cells that these tissues are made of. And if those stem cells are introduced into these tissues, and directed in such a way as to differentiate, and develop to become the cells that are missing, then the tissue is restored to full function--that's the theory anyway.