Prolonged fasting reduces IGF-1/PKA to promote hematopoietic-stem-cell-based regeneration and reverse immunosuppression
Cell Stem Cell, 2014. Cheng CW, et al.
Funding and competing interests (as published with the paper): This study was funded in part by NIH/NIA grants AG20642, AG025135 and P01 AG034906. V.D.L. has equity interest in L-Nutra, a company that develops medical food.
- Study type
- Animal study (mice)
- Journal
- Cell Stem Cell
- Published
- 2014
- Authors
- Cheng CW, et al.
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.stem.2014.04.014
- PubMed ID
- 24905167
Summary
Researchers studied how prolonged fasting affects blood-forming (hematopoietic) stem cells in mice, measuring hormone levels (IGF-1) and a signaling pathway (PKA) linked to stem cell renewal, and tracking immune recovery after chemotherapy.
The authors reported that fasting lowered IGF-1 and PKA activity, which was linked to stress resistance and renewal in long-term blood stem cells; repeated fasting cycles reduced chemotherapy-related immune suppression and reversed an age-related imbalance in immune cell types in mice. The authors also noted this was consistent with earlier, preliminary data on protecting immune cells during chemotherapy in fasting patients.
The stem cell and immune-regeneration mechanism described here is a mouse finding; the brief mention of fasting patients refers to preliminary data from other work, not a result of this study. This paper should be treated as mechanistic animal research, not as evidence of immune regeneration in people.
A study in mice of prolonged fasting, not of an FMD. The findings have not been shown in people.
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