While the search continues for the Fountain of Youth,
researchers may have found the body’s “fountain of aging”: the brain region
known as the hypothalamus. For the first time, scientists at Albert Einstein
College of Medicine of Yeshiva University report that the hypothalamus of mice
controls aging throughout the body. Their discovery of a specific age-related
signaling pathway opens up new strategies for combating diseases of old age and
extending lifespan. The paper was published today in the online edition of
Nature.