In a new study, researchers have found evidence that recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) can reverse epigenetic aging in humans.
They found that participants grew biologically younger by two and a half years in the study.
The research was conducted by a team from several institutions in the U.S. and one in Canada.
Their study was based on a report describing research in 1986 that showed injecting rats with rhGH boosted their immune system.
One team member actually tested the idea on himself back in the 1990s and found that that it appeared to rejuvenate his thymus, which boosted his immune system.
The thymus is a gland in the chest that converts white blood cells to T cells and therefore plays an important role in the immune response. Within the thymus, T cells mature.
As people get older, fatty deposits develop in the thymus, along with reductions in human growth hormone—the result is weakened immune responses.
In the study, the team aimed to learn more about the impact of rhGH on the thymus.
They wanted to get a better idea of what happens to the thymus and the immune system if people are given rhGH. They tested 9 healthy men in their study.
Each of the volunteers received the growth hormone DHEA. Each was also given two drugs to ward off diabetes since DHEA had been found to trigger the disease.
The volunteers were monitored over the course of a year.
At the end of the year, the team found that seven of the nine volunteers had lost fat in their thymuses and that healthy tissue had regrown to replace it.
They also found that all 10 of the volunteers experienced reverse epigenetic aging—on average, they grew biologically younger by two and a half years.
The researchers note that their study was very limited and more work is needed to see if human growth hormone can directly reverse the aging process.
One author of the study is Gregory Fany.
The study is published in the journal Aging Cell.
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