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Gay health: Spermidine increases the life span of human immune cells - and fruit flies
Human immunes cells can live longer
The best anti-ageing cream is ... semen
Two Austrian scientists have published the results of tests on a compound found in human semen that they believe can have a dramatic impact on life span.
A team at the
Spermidine was found to increase the life span of yeast by as much as a factor of four, that of fruit flies by up to 30% and of worms by up to 15%.
When it was applied to human immune cells they also lived longer, with three times as many surviving after 12 days as in a comparison batch.
The research has shown that spermidine works by promoting the cellular process of autophagy - a form of self-cleaning that, Eisenberg says, "removes cellular garbage such as clumped proteins or damaged or defective cellular organelles" - substances that are otherwise harmful to the body.
