A Rare Immune Cell Starts Multiplying Around Age 100, and People Who Reach 110 Are Full of Them

A Rare Immune Cell Starts Multiplying Around Age 100, and People Who Reach 110 Are Full of Them

A Cell Reports study found that rare cancer-linked immune cells expand in people past age 100. It does not prove they cause longer life.

People who live past 110 may retain an unusual form of immune resilience. A Cell Reports study found that rare cytotoxic CD4 T cells made up nearly one-fifth of the T cells in ten supercentenarians and had expanded into large groups of nearly identical cells—possibly reflecting continued responses to persistent infections or abnormal cells even at extreme old age.

Reaching 110 does not mean carrying an ordinary 70-year-old immune system for four extra decades. A supercentenarian has survived an exceptional accumulation of infections, inflammation, tissue damage and cellular turnover. The people who arrive there are rare survivors, not a representative sample of ageing. That makes a new finding in their blood intriguing, but also easy to overread. In ten people aged 110 or older, an unusual type of immune …

CD4 CTLs in Supercentenarians: Signs of Adaptive Expansion in Healthy Aging

Using single-cell immune profiling, researchers analyzed T cells from supercentenarians and found that cytotoxic T lymphocytes begin to expand around the age of 100, characterized by sequential CD27/CD28 loss without exhaustion. [Cell Reports] Full ArticleGraphical Abstract