Lack of metabolic ageing in the long-lived flatworm

Freshwater planarians have a large totipotent stem cell population allowing high rates of cell renewal and morphological plasticity. It is often suggested that they are able to rejuvenate during fission, regeneration and starvation. These features, together with the rapidly expanding molecular toolset, make planarians such as and interesting for ageing research. Yet, the basic demographic and physiological data is lacking or still based on fragmentary observations of one century ago.