Why This Matters to Us
As longevity enthusiasts, understanding how to maintain healthy blood vessels is key to living longer and healthier lives. Our blood vessels play a vital role in delivering oxygen and nutrients to every tissue in the body. However, as we age, their ability to repair and form new vessels weakens, contributing to health decline and issues like reduced endurance and increased vulnerability to diseases. This study shows that NMN, a nicotinamide mononucleotide supplement, could directly counteract age-related blood vessel deterioration. Improved vascular health could mean better physical function, increased energy, and possibly a longer, healthier life. Furthermore, the potential for using NMN alongside natural compounds found in Lion’s Mane mushrooms opens exciting possibilities for future research and practical applications in human aging.
The Detail
A new study published in the journal iScience reveals how aging affects the formation of blood vessels and how NMN, a precursor to NAD+, helps to reverse this process in aged mice. Blood vessel formation, or angiogenesis, is a critical process that ensures tissues receive enough oxygen and nutrients. In older individuals, this process becomes significantly impaired due to declining cellular energy and a loss of function in key blood vessel cells, known as endothelial cells. This decline is a major contributor to aging in general and reduced physical capacity specifically.
How Aging Impacts Blood Vessels
As we age, our arteries, veins, and capillaries—the network through which blood flows—start to deteriorate. Arteries deliver oxygen-rich blood, while veins carry oxygen-depleted blood back to the heart. Capillaries, the smallest blood vessels, are essential for delivering nutrients and oxygen directly to tissues.
The study showed that aged mice have fewer capillaries in their leg muscles than younger mice. When researchers removed an aorta (a major blood vessel) from aged mice and placed it in a nutrient-rich environment, it produced 50% fewer new blood vessels, compared to aortas from younger mice. This finding highlighted how aging significantly reduces the body’s ability to form new blood vessels.
What Causes the Decline?
To find out why endothelial cells in older mice performed worse, the scientists examined their gene activity and ability to produce energy. They observed that aged endothelial cells converted glucose into cellular energy (known as ATP) far less efficiently than younger cells. ATP is the body’s primary fuel source for nearly all cellular functions. Without enough ATP, endothelial cells struggle to multiply or repair blood vessels.
The core issue appeared to be low levels of NAD+, a molecule essential for energy production. NAD+ plays a critical role in the biochemical processes that convert glucose into ATP. When NAD+ levels drop with age, cells lose the energy they need to function efficiently.
How NMN Reverses the Damage
This is where NMN enters the picture. NMN is a precursor to NAD+, meaning the body can use it to produce more NAD+. The researchers treated aged endothelial cells with NMN and observed a significant boost in energy production. The cells were able to generate more ATP through both glycolysis (the first step of breaking down glucose) and cellular respiration (the process of generating energy inside mitochondria).
This increased energy production allowed the aged endothelial cells to proliferate (multiply) again, something they had struggled to do before NMN treatment. Additionally, the researchers applied NMN to aortas from aged mice, and the results were promising: the treated blood vessels produced the same amount of new blood vessels as those from younger mice. This evidence strongly suggests that NMN restores blood vessel growth impaired by aging.
A New Understanding of Blood Vessel Aging
Interestingly, the study also revealed that while aged endothelial cells struggled to proliferate, they could still migrate properly. Migration is essential for forming new blood vessels but was previously thought to be impaired with age. By restoring energy production with NMN and focusing on endothelial cell proliferation, the researchers challenged the long-held belief that aging universally damages all endothelial cell functions.
“Our research challenges the conjecture that aging diminishes endothelial cells’ ability to sense and respond to VEGF signalling,” the researchers noted. VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor) is a signal that stimulates blood vessel formation.
Synergistic Potential with Lion’s Mane Mushrooms
What makes this study even more exciting is the potential for NMN to be combined with natural compounds like ergothioneine, a potent antioxidant found in Lion’s Mane mushrooms. Studies show that ergothioneine increases hydrogen sulfide levels, which in turn elevates NAD+ production. Since NAD+ is also boosted by NMN, combining the two could have an additive effect, improving blood vessel formation and vascular health even further.
Conclusion
This research shines new light on a critical aspect of aging—declining vascular health—and offers hope for reversing this process. By boosting NAD+ levels with supplements like NMN, it may be possible to restore the capacity of our blood vessels to grow, repair, and provide crucial nutrients as we age. The potential to further enhance these effects by combining NMN with natural compounds such as ergothioneine points to exciting new ways to combat vascular aging.
As longevity enthusiasts, these findings inspire us to explore how interventions like NMN might one day help humans maintain healthier blood vessels, leading to a more vibrant, energetic, and longer life.