A creature has been discovered that can literally "reverse aging."

(NLĐO) - In the eyes of researchers, this strange group of creatures has reversed the aging process and is "17 years old again," even looking like newborns.

According to Science Alert, a research team put a colony of comb jellyfish, Mnemiopsis leidyi, through a difficult period in the laboratory. And they witnessed these bizarre creatures rejuvenate right before their eyes.

This particular experiment began by chance when marine biologist Joan Soto-Angel, from the University of Bergen (Norway), was puzzled when an adult Mnemiopsis leidyi he was raising in a laboratory tank suddenly lost its plump gelatinous lobes.

That's the most obvious identifying characteristic of a mature jellyfish. In other words, this jellyfish unexpectedly looked like a "teenager."

The organism Mnemiopsis leidyi, which possesses the ability to reverse aging, changed its form when starved - Photo: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Dr. Soto-Angel feels that current research may not fully reflect the story.

Previous studies have also observed this species significantly reducing body size and mass during periods of starvation as a means of survival, but experiments have ruled out the possibility of reverse aging.

Therefore, Dr. Soto-Angel collaborated with colleagues at the Pawel Burkhardt Michael Sars Centre (Norway) to conduct a larger experiment.

They kept 65 healthy adult jellyfish separately in a tank, all of which had completely shed their tentacles when young and developed other characteristics typical of adulthood.

They were all starved for 15 days, then given small amounts of food once a week, a much smaller diet than usual.

Fifteen of them had their front lobes removed before the experiment began, increasing the stress they experienced, which would stimulate their survival instincts.

As expected, these creatures shrank. But that's not all. They began absorbing the mature lobes into their bodies.

"Over several weeks, they not only change their morphological characteristics but also exhibit completely different feeding behaviors, typical of jellyfish larvae," said Dr. Soto-Angel.

After the experiment, 7 of the intact jellyfish looked like complete juveniles, while 6 of the 15 that had their lobes removed reverted to their "adolescent" age, equivalent to 17 years old in humans.

We already know that comb jellies are quite special: They have the ability to regenerate lost body parts, and even fuse two severely injured jellies into one to continue living.

They only create an anus when absolutely necessary and completely disregard normal biological rules, for example, they can reproduce sexually at a stage known as the larval stage.

"It will be fascinating to uncover the molecular mechanisms driving reverse growth and what happens to the animal's neural network during this process," said Dr. Burkhardt.

Meanwhile, Dr. Soto-Angel suggests that the discovery that this organism can reverse the aging process raises interesting questions about the extent to which this ability is pervasive across the entire animal life tree.

Prior to Mnemiopsis leidyi, another immortal jellyfish species, Turritopsis dohrnii, had also been shown to have the ability to reverse aging, although not as miraculously as in this new experiment.

The new findings have just been published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/phat-hien-sinh-vat-co-the-cai-lao-hoan-dong-theo-nghia-den-196241108095219826.htm