24 May , 21:15
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Japanese scientists revealed the secret of super-centenarians' immunity: unique body protection helps overcome the 110-year threshold. The revolutionary study was published in the prestigious scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
A group of researchers from the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences and Keio University School of Medicine conducted a unique analysis of the immune system of seven super-centenarians, comparing the results with data from people aged 50-80. The results were astonishing: those who crossed the 110-year threshold were found to have extraordinarily high levels of cytotoxic T-lymphocytes — defender cells that destroy viruses, bacteria, and cancer cells. In some cases, these cells made up to 80% of all T-lymphocytes, which is 4-8 times higher than in the control group, where their proportion did not exceed 10-20%.
A real discovery for scientists was the fact that cytotoxic properties were possessed not only by T-killers, which traditionally play the role of "soldiers" in the immune system, but also by T-helpers — cells that under normal conditions only coordinate the immune response. This phenomenon was completely absent in younger study participants, which led specialists to think about an innate, genetically determined feature of super-centenarians' organisms.
According to researchers, it is the unusually high concentration of "combat" T-cells that provides these unique people with the ability to reach extreme old age while maintaining exceptional resistance to infectious diseases and oncological processes.
