Back to Genesis?

A new study out in Science magazine shows that Klotho, a protein found in mammals, makes mice - and potentially people - live longer by blocking the function of insulin.

The researchers studied mice which were genetically engineered to overexpress the klotho protein.

The engineered mice lived between 20% and 30% longer than wild-type mice, said Makoto Kuro-o, M.D., PhD, a professor of pathology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Eight years ago, Dr. Kuro-o and colleagues showed that mice that didn't have the klotho gene aged and died prematurely. 'This time we did the opposite - we overexpressed the gene in mice and found they lived longer,' he said.

The study is 'a pleasant surprise,' said George Martin, M.D., a specialist in aging at the University of Washington in Seattle, because it implies that there are common mechanisms that animals use to delay aging.

And, in fact, in the Texas study, the engineered mice did have fewer offspring, he noted.

This brings Genesis to mind. The connection I see is that people lived a long time (900 years or so) and generally didn't have their first children until they were approximately 100 years old.

Thesis: Perhaps this protein was less prevalent in Noah and his family--the eight people that we all descended from.

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