Blood Cells Could Hold Master Clock Behind Aging

Blood cells could hold the key to aging, according to a new Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine study cited by Medical Xpress . The research, published in Aging Cell , found human blood cells have an intrinsic clock that remains steady even after transplant. According to the research team, the clock could control human aging and may underlie blood cancers. Dr. Shigemi Matsuyama, an associate professor of medicine at Case Western Reserve University's School of Medicine, led the international team of researchers. Together, they measured cellular age in blood cells transplanted from healthy donors to leukemia patients, focusing on donor-recipient pairs of widely different ages. According to Matsuyama, "We found young blood cells stay young in older people. There was no accelerated aging of young blood cells in an older human body." The researchers found the opposite was also true — i.e., blood cells from adult donors transferred to a child stay older. The cells retained their intrinsic age almost 20 years after transplant.