T Cells May Help You Live 110 Years

Question

Have you heard the word "supercentenarian?" A supercentenarian is someone who has reached or surpassed 110 years of age. About one in 1,000 centenarians can achieve that age. But what are supercentenarian’s secret to long and healthy lives? Scientists from the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Science (IMS) and Keio University School of Medicine in Japan may have just found that out!

     

     

The secret of supercentenarians

     

Previous studies found that supercentenarians were less likely to get infections and cancers than ordinary people during their whole life. So, scientists wonder if this is because they have a unique immune system.

     

In order to verify this guess, the research team looked at the circulating immune cells froma group of supercentenarians and a group of younger controls. They acquired a total of 41,208 cells from 7 supercentenarians (an average of 5,887 per subject) and 19,994 cells from 5 people (control group) aged in their fifties to eighties (an average of 3,999 per subject).

      

     

It turns out that the supercentenarians had a very high level of T cells that are cytotoxic. Cytotoxic cells are “toxic” cells that can kill other cells, including cancer cells and other damaged cells in the body.

      

In the supercentenarians, cytotoxic T cells can amount up to 80% of all T-cells, while in the control group, the percentage is just 10% or 20%.

       

     

Besides, the researchers noticed another unusual thing. Cytotoxic T cells are normally T-cells with CD8 markers. However, the high level of cytotoxic T cells found in the body of supercentenarians were T-cells with CD4 markers.

      

In other words, the supercentenarians had more cytotoxic T cells with CD4 markers than ordinary people.

     

     

The researchers have not yet understood the reason behind, but they suggested that the special combination of T-cells with CD8 markers and CD4 markers may contribute to longevity.

     

Scientists are now planning to further study of the supercentenarians, who can become a good model of healthy aging. If successful, we may find the key to longevity and have more time to enjoy our life.

 

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Answer 1

Oh God no thanks. I’m feeling even 80 is past due. I would never want to live to 110. No way.

Comments

Heck yeah bring it 120 sounds like a nice number

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Why? I even want to live to thousands to see the future.

Answer 2

Is there an ongoing study of seniors to find more subjects? I would be interested, if there is.

Comments

idk. but i think these studies are only published once they're finished and it's the researchers find you, not you find them.

Answer 3

I may still have a chance to benefit from these researches. I'll try to stay healthy until they come up with the magic water. Work harder, men!

Comments

Work harder "men"? You don't think women do research?

Answer 4

You state that the group acquired 40,000 " cells" from one group and 20,000 from the other. This would represent much less than one drop of blood total. Did you mean  "samples?" Or did you mean a total of 20/40 K purified Cytotoxic T cells were analyzed (still, a very small number).

You also state that the Tc in the two groups kill different % of T cells. This is unlikely to be the finding. It is possible that they referred to the % of all T cells comprised by the Tc subset. Please read carefully and check your findings before posting.

Comments

Thank you very much for your reply. I double checked the oringinal article of the study immediately and found that 1) the amounts of cells refer to purified circulating immune cells, and 2) 80% is the proportion of cytotoxic T cells in all T cells in the supercentenarians. I've re-edited the post and many thanks again for your kind reply.

Answer 5

my mother is 102 in good health overall and takes no medications, how do you find out if you carry T cells and the CD4 or CD8 markers?

Comments

It is quite easy. You jsut draw a blood and send it to the lab for testing. I read this paper, and it turns out the method used to measure T cells and CD4/8 is readily available in many hospital labs or in university research labs