focus -WSS

focus

author：comprehensive 2025-08-28 13:06:05 - browse：344

The human gut teems with bacteria and other colorful microbes. — NIH

One of the indignities of getting older is the way your body’s defenses against microbes begin to break down, leaving you extra vulnerable to infection. Researchers studying the ways these systems change with age refer to them collectively as “immunosenescence,” or, more poetically, the “twilight of immunity.” But even as scientific understanding of the phenomenon has grown over the past decade, the forces driving it remain murky.

One theory is that it all starts in the bone marrow, where a primitive reserve of stem cells replenishes the ranks of blood and immune cells to the tune of about 500 billion new cells every day. Some of these hematopoietic stem cells, or HSCs, are more likely to become long-lived stewards of immune memory like B cells and T cells; others are more likely to give rise to blood cells and front-line immune defenders. They all work in concert to get the balance right. As people age, though, one lineage of HSCs starts to dominate, throwing the equilibrium off-kilter.

On Wednesday, a team of scientists at Stanford University and the National Institutes of Health Rocky Mountain Laboratories reported in Nature that this age-associated imbalance in HSCs is to blame for a cascade of downstream declines in immune function. And by restoring a youthful balance of these cells with injections of antibodies, they were able to rejuvenate the immune systems of older mice — enabling them to better fend off viral attacks.

Get unlimited access to award-winning journalism and exclusive events.

Subscribe Log In

Previous article： After affirmative action ruling, medical educators look to 'holistic review'
Next article： The biotech scorecard for Q3: 15 stock

WSS

The wait for US passports is creating travel purgatory and snarling summer plans

Trump’s hydroxychloroquine hype: a risk to my treatment and to him

What affirmative action's end means to a medical student

Dexcom's push to bring CGM to type 2 diabetes patients

PBM executives asked to testify by House panel

Is it ever OK for doctors to lie to their patients?

entertainment

focus

focus

Psychedelics group wrestles with new pharma identity

The wait for US passports is creating travel purgatory and snarling summer plans

Medical leaders decry Supreme Court decision on affirmative action

Fatty liver disease was alleviated by Lilly’s ‘triple

In Memoriam: Notable people who died in 2023

Readout Newsletter: PTC, Dyne, Rapport, Cytokinetics news

After affirmative action ruling, medical educators look to 'holistic review'

Lupron, used to halt puberty in children, may cause lasting health problems

ChatGPT in medicine: STAT answers readers' burning questions

AstraZeneca lung cancer study comes in below expectations

focus

How a small hospital in rural Puerto Rico survived Hurricane Maria

Being 'nonadherent' patient made me a more empathetic doctor

Most antidepressants don't work on kids, teens, study finds

Vertex cell therapy lets patients with type 1 diabetes stop insulin

GSK’s asthma push continues as drug succeeds in Phase 3 trials

Brain MRIs reveal impact of 'toxic stress' on Black children

knowledge

hotspot

hotspot

focus