Parabiosis In Aging Research And Regenerative Medicine

The surgical technique of parabiosis may very well be much older than scientific publications. However, in 1864, Paul Bert published what is regarded as the first widely read report of parabiosis in his "Sur la Greffe Animale." Largely focused on the nature of tissue grafts and rejection, this work also describes "greffe par approche," the surgical joining of two rats to make artificially, as Bert described, a siamese twin. Since then, parabiosis (or joining two separate animals through blood circulation) has been used in many evolutionary distinct species with diverse scientific goals, ranging from understanding immune response to studies of aging and carcinogenesis, to stem cell research, understanding obesity, and so forth This chapter is focused on experimental parabiosis with detailed protocol of this technique and on the past, current, and future implementations of this technique.