A new study on fruit flies has uncovered a new problem: Blue light emitted from screens can have an effect on our basic biological functions, and the study’s findings were published in Frontiers in Aging. Dr. Jadwiga Giebultowicz, a professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at Oregon State University and lead author of this study, said that “excessive exposure to blue light from everyday devices, such as televisions, laptops and phones, can have detrimental effects on a wide variety of cells in our body, from skin and fat cells to sensory neurons.
Giebultowicz advised: “We are the first to show that the levels of specific metabolites, chemicals that are essential for cells to function properly, are altered in fruit flies exposed to blue light. Our study suggests that avoiding excessive exposure to blue light may be a good anti-aging strategy,” says the news agency AND ME report said.
Why do you need to turn off the light:
Researchers at Oregon State University have previously shown that fruit flies exposed to light “turn on” protective genes against stress, and that those kept in constant darkness live longer. Giebultowicz explained: “To understand why high-energy blue light is responsible for accelerating aging in fruit flies, we compared metabolite levels in flies exposed to blue light for two weeks with those kept in full darkness”. blue light exposure caused significant differences in the levels of metabolites measured by the researchers in the cells of the fly heads and, in particular, they found that levels of the metabolite succinate increased, but glutamate levels decreased.
“Succinate is essential for producing the fuel for the function and growth of every cell. The high levels of succinate after exposure to blue light can be compared to gasoline that is at the pump but does not get into the car.” Giebultowicz said. “Another worrying finding was that molecules responsible for communication between neurons, such as glutamate, are at the lowest level after exposure to blue light,” the report said.
Can it accelerate aging and premature death?
The changes recorded by the researchers suggest that the cells are operating at a suboptimal level, and this may cause their premature death, and further explain their earlier findings that blue light accelerates ageing. Giebultowicz explains: “LEDs have become the primary lighting in displays such as phones, desktops, and televisions, as well as ambient lighting, so humans in advanced societies are exposed to blue light through the LED lighting for most of your waking hours. The signaling chemicals in the cells of flies and humans are the same, so there is potential for negative effects of blue light on humans.”
It’s worth noting that future work hopes to study the effects directly on human cells, Giebultowicz concluded, “We use a fairly strong blue light on flies: humans are exposed to less intense light, so cell damage can be less dramatic. The results of this study suggest that future research with human cells is needed to establish the extent to which human cells may show similar changes in metabolites involved in energy production in response to excessive blue light exposure.”
(With contributions from the ANI)
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