One immune switch may help drive aging across the body

Aging may be partly fueled by immune cells losing their ability to clear away damaged, inflammation-promoting cells. Blocking a single receptor restored that cleanup process in mice, reducing inflammation and helping their organs, muscles, and memory remain remarkably youthful. One immune switch may help drive aging across the body.

One immune switch may help drive aging across the body Science News from research organizations One immune switch may help drive aging across the body Blocking one immune-cell receptor helped old mice stay leaner, stronger, sharper, and biologically younger across multiple organs. New research from Stanford Medicine, conducted in mice and human cells, points to a particular failure in the immune system that may help explain why. The researchers found that tissue-resident macrophages, a type of immune cell that lives permanently within organs, become less able with age to dispose of another class of immune cells.

That decline appears to contribute to aging throughout the body. When the scientists blocked a single receptor on these macrophages, multiple organs in mice retained more youthful characteristics. The effects were seen in the brain, heart, skeletal and heart muscle, liver, spleen, bone marrow, kidney, and colon.

The receptor normally responds to a hormone involved in inflammation and pain in both mice and humans.