Blood changes after age 50: Catalan researchers open the door to anti-aging therapies

BarcelonaA young person can have up to 200,000 stem cells, which are responsible for the production of billions of red and white blood cells and platelets every day, which then circulate in our blood. As we age, the blood system deteriorates: stem cells are lost and the generation of new cells is impaired. For this reason, aging is one of the main risk factors for a wide range of diseases, including cancer and Alzheimer's.

Researchers from the Barcelona Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB) and the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG) have shown that, starting in their 50s or 60s, the blood cells of some people display natural patterns, a kind of AD "barcodes." This discovery not only reveals a loss of "universal" cellular diversity, but may also facilitate the detection of aging-related diseases long before symptoms appear in the future. Although years of research are still needed, it could precede the development of anti-aging therapies.

The changes discovered by the Catalan centers become "almost universal" for all people starting at age 60, the age at which specific groups of stem cells outnumber other types and gradually take over blood production. This reduces stem cell diversity and favors the production of a type of immune cell associated with chronic inflammation called myeloid.

Persistent chronic inflammation

"Our blood stem cells compete for survival. During youth, this competition creates a rich and diverse ecosystem, but with age, some disappear completely. A few take over and work twice as hard to compensate, reducing diversity and weakening the blood system," explains Lars Velten, Wednesday. the magazine Nature.

According to the researchers, this loss of stem cell diversity observed in the study may be related to persistent chronic inflammation that appears with age and makes people more vulnerable to various diseases. The team has identified this pattern in both mice and humans, so they believe it is a fundamental characteristic of blood aging in all species.

In this sense, they believe that these conclusions open the door to developing new strategies to detect signs of unhealthy aging long before symptoms appear and prevent diseases such as myeloid leukemia, cardiovascular disease, or immune disorders. It also opens the door to studying the feasibility of therapies to delay aging in humans, one of the holy grails of science.

A new screening technique

Until now, tracing each blood cell back to its stem cell of origin was only possible in genetically modified animal models, but not in humans. As the cell divides, chemical marks called methylations are copied to daughter cells, like a barcode or a permanent surname, allowing them to reconstruct the cellular family tree. To read these chemical marks, which blood cells share with single-cell stem cells,

Using this tool, scientists have reconstructed blood production in mice and humans, identifying which stem cells contribute to the blood and which drop out of the competition over time. could be used as a blood cancer screening tool, but we still need to bring the price of the technique down," concludes Velten.

"This pioneering study represents a major step forward in our ability to understand and control aging at the cellular level," says Ana Guerrero, from the Ramón y Ca researcher. Iñaki Martín-Subero, head of the Biomedical Epigenomics group at IDIBAPS, who describes the study as "excellent, with exceptional technical quality and a high degree of conceptual innovation." has participated in the research.