FOXSYLVANIA

– – The real naked mole rat is even less attractive than the CG one featured in a recent MiO commercial, featuring wrinkled skin, stubby legs, and poor eyesight.  This rat native to East Africa is however a longevity champ, living 10 to 30 years as opposed to the three year life span of the common rat.  Although not  pretty, the rat also ages well, showing little of the slow decline in mental and physical health commonly associated with aging.  “Senior” naked mole rats maintain high levels of physical activity, strong bones, and can even continue to reproduce in their golden years!

The reason for this according to new research conducted in the U.S. and Israel seems to be unusually high levels of the NRG-1 protein, which is thought to protect the integrity of the body’s nerve cells.  This research could lead to new insights about human aging, and lest we feel too superior to them, rodents’ genes are 85% similar to humans!

This entry was posted on July 5, 2012 at 1:03 am and is filed under animal oddities, animals, research, science. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: naked mole rats