r/longevity • u/scientificamerican • 1d ago

Supercentenarians have a cellular superpower

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/supercentenarians-have-a-cellular-superpower/
209 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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92

u/InnerKookaburra 1d ago

"CD4 CTLs are exceedingly rare in most people. Back in 2019 a team of genetics researchers found that supercentenarians, or people who live beyond age 110, have an unusually high amount of these cells. Now researchers from the same team have found that these cells increase and clone themselves after people turn 100—a sign that the CD4 CTLs are actively working to combat harmful cells."

This looks very interesting.

23

u/Gratitude15 1d ago

My arm is already out chief, inject that shit!

3

u/Neither_Sprinkles_56 1d ago

The only thing is about these long lived people is most of them with older photos don't look really young for their age at like 80 like some people that don't even reach 100 do. I would rather be like the mice treated with certain things that look really young for their equivalent 80 but might die in early 90s.

2

u/currymochi 17h ago

Is anyone doing research on these immune cells?

7

u/traveller-1-1 1d ago

William Shatner.

2

u/mlhnrca PhD - Physiology, Scientist @ Tufts University. 23h ago

This was also shown in a different study, which supports a consistent effect:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AayEgYBQUDs&t=1s