Today's centenarians (they were nearly 31,000 in France in 2024, according to Ined), have experienced the birth of digital technology, major scientific breakthroughs ranging from penicillin to the latest molecules against AIDS, and several pandemics. Events to which their cells have been able to "resist". Through them, previous studies have shown the ability of centenarians to delay or escape diseases related to aging such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer's disease.
To decipher the secrets of this longevity, researchers from Boston University (USA) took blood and skin samples from a hundred centenarians and their descendants. From these samples, they generated a bank of stem cells, which can be shared with other research teams around the world. Their approach is published in the journal Aging Cell.
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A bank of centenarians' stem cells
At the time of fertilization, human cells are all identical. After three weeks, genes are activated and become recruiters. They select and assign a specialization to each stem cell. These, called pluripotent, can then differentiate into any cell in the body. Some will become liver cells, others lung cells, or even skin cells.
Stem cells produced in the laboratory are called "induced pluripotent stem cells" (By transforming blood and skin samples from centenarians into CSPI, scientists have created an unlimited resource of longevity-specific biomaterials. This "centenarian stem cell bank" could fuel the study and development of new therapies for diseases related to aging.
"The CSPIs are a genetic match to the individual from whom they were created," "This is important because there are almost no models of human aging that can be used to test new therapies," explains George Murphy, associate professor at Boston University and co-author of the study.
The limitation of this study lies in the loss of epigenetic data from the initial cells, that is, data concerning modifications in gene activity, linked to the environment. By transforming them into CSPI, the researchers lose part of this information. "But this has no influence on so-called "Petri dish" experiments.", says the researcher.
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Longevity is cultivated in the laboratory
The Boston researchers want to make these stem cell models available to other teams around the world. This open science approach would help coordinate and accelerate research into diseases related to aging.
George Murphy's team has already carried out several experiments on these cells. "In people with exceptional longevity, We found that the neurons we created from their stem cells were remarkably resilient, says the researcher. The goal is to identify and validate factors that act to maintain cellular integrity and functionality during disease and aging. Once these elements are identified, the idea would then be to "activate" these genes and pathways in other individuals so that they can benefit from the same advantages".
The induced stem cells are used here both in fundamental research into the characteristics of centenarians' neurons and in the search for therapies to improve the longevity of other patients, for example by strengthening the neurons of people suffering from Alzheimer's disease. The creation of this cell bank may make it possible to find a genetic cause for the resilience of centenarians.
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