This Cell Could Hold The Key To Avoiding Age-Related Disease, New Study Says

To put it simply: The older we get, the more likely it is that things go wrong. But what explains this phenomenon? According to an article published in Nature Aging2, the answer may lie in a specific type of cell, called a senescent cell.

Senescent cells3 are a unique type of cell in that they stop dividing in response to stressors but don’t die like other cells. Instead, they stick around wreaking havoc in the body, producing chronic inflammation.

Researchers have suspected for years that these cells play a key role in age-related disease. Most recently, researchers from the Jackson Laboratory at the National Institute of Health have collected and analyzed 18 tissues from healthy humans across their lifespan to understand exactly how these cells are involved in the aging process.

The early results of this ongoing research project, published in the journal Nature Aging2, showed that removing senescent cells from human tissue delayed the onset of age-related issues and was associated with longevity.

You might read this and think: Time to get rid of all my senescent cells! But unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple. Like most cells, senescent cells play multiple roles in the body. The molecules expressed by senescent cells are involved in embryonic development, wound healing, and childbirth too.

This makes them a complicated and ambiguous area of research–and this study is just scratching the surface. It doesn’t tell us exactly how to leverage senescent cells for a longer, healthier life while still taking advantage of their benefits. That said, it does give us the clear message that therapies that remove senescent cells–an area of medical research called senotherapeutics–is absolutely worth paying attention to.

In the future, these therapies might just hold the key to healthspan and longevity. Researchers are hopeful that the more we learn about senescent cells, the better we can become at identifying individuals at higher risk for age-related disease, too.

In the meantime, we can still focus on the healthy aging tools that have plenty of science backing them up. There is a long list, but some of the more doable ones include:

When it comes to aging, we’re all in it together. Senescent cells may hold a key to preventing age-related illness, but we’re still a long ways off from knowing exactly how senescent cell therapies might be used. Until then, we can focus on eating healthy, supplementing where necessary, staying active, and being positive in the quest for improved longevity and healthspan.