As women go through menopause, they often sense that it's not just their bodies changing, but also their minds. They report hot flashes, anxiety, brain fog and trouble sleeping—all symptoms that can be traced back to the brain.

Now, researchers at UC San Francisco have found biological evidence to back them up. In a new study published in Nature Medicine, they've discovered that levels of 16 molecules in the blood, all linked to brain aging, rise during the menopause transition in midlife. In older women, higher levels of the same molecules were associated with worse memory and thinking skills, as well as Alzheimer's disease risk. This suggests the biology of menopause may set the stage for brain health decades later.

"We don't think that menopause is directly causing dementia," said Kaitlin Casaletto, Ph.D., an associate professor at the UCSF Fein Memory and Aging Center and co-senior author of the study. "But it's possible that we may be able to predict a woman's risk for dementia decades later by the levels of these molecules around menopause."

A critical window

Two-thirds of people with Alzheimer's disease are women, and the disparity can't be explained solely by women's longer average life expectancy compared with men. Yet studies have not pinned down exactly what it is about women's biology, or how they age, that makes them more prone to dementia.

What is known is that the earliest brain changes associated with Alzheimer's disease begin decades before symptoms appear. For women, this points toward a critical window around menopause—the cessation of menstrual periods that occurs at an average age of 51. This led Casaletto and her colleagues to wonder whether something shifting in some women's brains during menopause could teach us about dementia risk and resilience.

But menopause is not a single moment; it unfolds over years, as hormone levels begin to change and symptoms emerge as early as a decade before the final menstrual cycle and last for years afterward. Casaletto's group set out to map changes in brain health across this entire time span.

"Many studies just ask women whether they've gone through menopause and if so, when," said first author Madeline Wood Alexander, a graduate student at the University of Toronto. "It was really important to us that we be more precise and capture these years of hormonal flux."

The researchers recruited 80 women in their 40s and 50s and used a tool called STRAW+10, which combines symptoms and hormone levels, to gauge exactly where in the menopause transition each woman was.

Tracking brain health

Using a commercially available research blood test that measures more than 100 molecules linked to brain health, the team identified 16 molecules whose levels shifted throughout menopause. Each molecule's levels were more closely associated with one or more hormone levels than with a woman's exact age, suggesting that menopause—not just aging—triggered the changes.

Molecules linked to inflammation tended to rise as levels of the hormone estradiol decreased, while a separate group of molecules linked to Alzheimer's biology rose as follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) levels increased. The findings were replicated in an analysis of previously collected data from more than 2,800 women in the UK Biobank.

When the scientists looked at levels of the same molecules in women in their 60s and early 70s—using data on almost 12,000 women from four previous studies—they found that older women who had the highest levels of those molecules had worse memory and a 15% higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease as they aged.

"We're identifying molecular shifts in blood, in midlife post-menopausal women, that are also predicting cognition later in life," said co-senior author Rowan Saloner, Ph.D., assistant professor at the UCSF Fein Memory and Aging Center. "So, we think these molecules are really important markers of both menopause and cognitive aging."

The researchers also found that women who reported night sweats tended to have a greater increase in the levels of inflammatory molecules during menopause. That link persisted for many years—older women who recalled having hot flashes during menopause also still had higher levels of those inflammatory markers.

An early-warning alert

The researchers were careful to describe their findings as correlational; they don't yet know what brain changes or dementia risk factors the menopause transition may directly trigger. They also pointed out that in a small sample of midlife men, much of the molecular fingerprint was the same as it was in postmenopausal women. This suggests that menopause may trigger a rapid shift in biological aging that unfolds more gradually in men.

"Menopause is a normal physiological process that every person who has ovaries who lives long enough will go through," said Wood Alexander. "We don't want it to be viewed as a bad thing, but as an opportunity to better understand and maybe modify the biology of brain aging in women."

The team's eventual goal, they said, is to develop a blood test that can act as an early-warning sign of dementia risk—the same way cholesterol tests are used to gauge heart disease risk. This could let clinicians identify people who, in midlife, might benefit from early interventions.

"Midlife is a critical window for both men and women where we can really set up the brain to be more resilient or more vulnerable to dementia in later life," said Casaletto. "For women, menopause may be this especially powerful time to intervene."

Casaletto, in collaboration with other scientists from around the country, is now launching the Longitudinal Menopause Project, which will enroll its first participants next month and track women through the full menopause transition with twice-yearly blood draws, brain MRIs, cognitive testing, wearables and smartphone-based monitoring. Separately, Wood Alexander is recruiting women at the University of Toronto to measure changes throughout menopause.

Publication details

Madeline Wood Alexander et al, Blood proteomics of menopause map to brain aging and dementia risk, Nature Medicine (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41591-026-04648-4

Journal information: Nature Medicine

Key medical concepts

Clinical categories

Children taking GLP-1 medications for weight loss, prediabetes, or type 2 diabetes may face an important nutritional concern. A new study published in Childhood Obesity found that nearly one in six young patients (16.8%) were diagnosed with a nutritional deficiency during the first year after starting treatment.

Vitamin D deficiency was the most frequently identified problem, affecting 12.4% of children within one year of beginning GLP-1 therapy.

Nutrition Matters During Childhood Growth

"As appropriate pediatric use of GLP-1s becomes more widespread, we need to understand the risks during periods of rapid growth and pubertal development," said senior author Justin Ryder, PhD, Vice Chair of Research for the Department of Surgery at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, and Associate Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "Nutrients such as vitamin D, iron and calcium are of particular concern during adolescence, when deficiencies may have lasting implications for skeletal health and overall development."

Adolescence is a period when the body requires substantial nutritional support for bone growth, physical development, and other major biological changes. Because GLP-1 medications can affect appetite and food intake, researchers say attention to nutrition may be especially important for younger patients receiving these drugs.

"Nutritional support needs to play a critical role once treatment with a GLP-1 medication is initiated," he added. "In our study, however, we found that only 5% of patients received nutritional counseling within 30 days of GLP-1 treatment and less than 25% received nutritional counseling within 6 months."

Tracking GLP-1 Use in More Than 2,000 Children

To investigate the issue, Dr. Ryder and his colleagues analyzed national administrative claims data collected from 2017 through 2022. The broader database covered more than 100 million patients.

From those records, the researchers identified 2,031 GLP-1 users ages 10 to 17 who met the study's continuous enrollment requirements and had not previously been diagnosed with a nutritional deficiency.

Among these children, liraglutide (Victoza and Saxenda) was by far the most commonly prescribed GLP-1 medication, accounting for 78.6% of prescriptions. Dulaglutide (Trulicity) accounted for 10.4%, while semaglutide (Ozempic and Wegovy) accounted for 9.1%.

Researchers Call for Earlier Nutritional Support

The findings suggest that nutritional care may need to begin alongside GLP-1 treatment rather than only after a deficiency has already been detected.

"We hope that our study findings bring much needed recognition to the importance of proactive nutritional management when GLP-1s are prescribed to children, as opposed to waiting until a nutritional deficiency is diagnosed," said Dr. Ryder. "Knowing the risks, we are in a much better position to prevent harm to children treated with GLP-1s during a pivotal period in their lives."

• RELATED TOPICS Health & Medicine Osteoporosis Diabetes Diet and Weight Loss Obesity Today's Healthcare Women's Health Diseases and Conditions Nutrition
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Materials provided by Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:

1. Kirk W. Kerr, Andrew T. Chang, Suela Sulo, John T. Stutts, Thadchaigeni Panchalingam, Justin R. Ryder. Nutritional Deficiencies, Complications, and Nutrition Therapy/Counseling in Pediatric Patients Using GLP-1 Receptor Agonists. Childhood Obesity, 2026; DOI: 10.1177/21532176261486979

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In a study using fruit flies, researchers found that shielding flies from the Earth's magnetic field altered mitochondrial function, lifespan and physical performance—with strikingly different effects depending on the health of the flies' mitochondria.

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Sleep quantity and quality are priorities of China's National Health Commission and a focus in China more broadly. The most recent 2026 China Sleep Health White Paper finds that while the average Chinese person surveyed sleeps 6.97 hours per night, 23% sleep less than 6 hours per night. The same report notes that only 26% of respondents reported a consistent sleep schedule and that sleep disturbances have increased over time. Understanding how sleep patterns are linked to disease risk is therefore highly relevant to Chinese citizens.

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In the new study, researchers analyzed data from 95,559 UK Biobank participants who wore wrist accelerometers for seven consecutive days and nights. The researchers used a deep-learning algorithm to calculate sleep stages (REM, deep and light sleep), total sleep duration, wakefulness after sleep onset and night-to-night sleep irregularity. Participants were followed for a median of 8.9 years, and health records were available to test associations with more than 1,000 disease outcomes.

Fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) are the clinical gold standards for screening blood sugar levels, yet they provide only static snapshots that fail to reflect the highly dynamic and heterogeneous nature of metabolic impairment. However, continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) is reshaping our understanding of these levels. While the medical community already has begun capitalizing on CGM for diabetes management, a new study has the potential to change current clinical practices for cardiovascular disease risk stratification in individuals without diabetes.

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Researchers at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine have found that glucose patterns captured by CGM devices among adults without diabetes are related to markers of cardiometabolic risk. The findings, published in Diabetes Care , could ultimately inform future approaches to identifying individuals at greater risk for poor cardiometabolic health.

"Understanding temporal glucose patterns may be pivotal in uncovering early or intermittent dysglycemia and its downstream cardiometabolic risks. Continuous glucose monitoring may help characterize the heterogeneity underlying dysglycemia by enabling phenotyping of individuals across the blood sugar continuum," explains corresponding author Nicole Spartano, Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine.

The researchers analyzed continuous glucose monitoring data from approximately 1,300 participants in the Framingham Heart Study who did not have diabetes or cardiovascular disease. They examined several features of glucose patterns, including average glucose, glucose variability and periods of higher glucose, and studied how these measures related to markers of cardiometabolic health.

Creatine has become one of the most talked-about supplements for building muscle, boosting performance and supporting healthy aging. New research from Texas A&M University suggests its potential benefits may be especially relevant as maintaining muscle becomes more important with age.

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In a 12-week study published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition , researchers found adults ages 45–65 who took creatine gained lean tissue and strength, even without participating in a structured exercise program. Those who combined creatine with exercise saw greater gains.

The findings add to growing interest in creatine beyond its familiar role as a supplement popular with athletes, including its potential role in supporting muscle health as people get older.

The study's principal investigator, Dr. Richard Kreider, professor and director of the Exercise and Sport Nutrition Lab at Texas A&M, has studied creatine for more than 30 years. The naturally occurring compound helps replenish cellular energy and has been extensively studied for its effects on exercise performance, muscle and strength. Kreider's previous research has pointed to potential benefits for health across the lifespan.

The latest study included 64 healthy adults who completed the 12-week intervention. Participants chose whether to take part in a structured exercise and diet-induced weight-loss program or remain in the non-exercise group, then were randomly assigned to take either 10 grams of creatine monohydrate or a placebo each day.

A new clinical trial led by researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience has found that exercise has a significant effect on mood and lab-based measures of new brain cell formation in healthy middle-aged participants.

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The Neurofit study investigated the effect of a three-month exercise intervention program on cognitive performance, mood and biological indicators of new neuron production in middle age. Previous studies have found middle age to be a period of increased psychological distress and changes in cognition. This period can coincide with a reduction in physical activity because of changes in work or social patterns.

Existing studies in animal models have also shown positive effects of exercise on cognitive performance. These benefits are accompanied by more neurons being made from stem cells in the hippocampus, a key part of the brain involved in memory and cognition. The Neurofit clinical trial aimed to evaluate the effect of exercise on these same factors in humans.

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Memory problems, thinning skin, and declining bone mass may seem like separate consequences of growing older. Yet experiments in mice suggest that changes in a protein deep inside the brain can influence all three. Restoring that protein, called Menin, improved several signs of aging, while a separate treatment with the amino acid D-serine improved cognition.

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How a Brain Protein Could Influence Aging

The researchers focused on the hypothalamus, a small brain region that helps coordinate metabolism and other essential functions. It also appears to influence how the body ages. As inflammatory signaling increases in this region, it can contribute to changes both within the brain and in tissues elsewhere in the body.

Before the 2023 study, Leng and colleagues had found that Menin helps restrain inflammation in the hypothalamus. That raised an important question: Could losing some of this protection help set age-related decline in motion?

Coffee is best known, and perhaps most valued, for its caffeine and its ability to make us feel more awake and alert. But coffee is much more than caffeine dissolved in hot water.

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Coffee is a chemically complicated plant extract containing hundreds of bioactive compounds . These can have all kinds of weird and wonderful effects on your body, even when you're drinking decaf.

One study shows about three in 10 people say they get the urge to poop shortly after drinking coffee.

This happens quickly, and with both regular and decaf. So it's down to more than just caffeine. But it's not clear exactly which coffee compounds cause this.

A common and often overlooked nutrient deficiency may play a bigger role in pregnancy outcomes than previously recognized. In a recent analysis published in the Journal of Perinatology, neonatologist and pediatrician Carol L. Wagner, M.D., and Anjali G. Borsum, an M.D. candidate at MUSC's College of Medicine, found that among more than 15,000 pregnancies studied at MUSC, women with the lowest vitamin D levels faced the highest risk of preterm birth.

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Drawing from a large retrospective data set collected between 2016 and 2025 and leveraging extensive support from the South Carolina Clinical & Translational Research (SCTR) Institute, including biostatistical and regulatory guidance, clinical research infrastructure, laboratory services and Nexus data resources, Wagner and Borsum identified a strong association between profound vitamin D deficiency and earlier gestational age at delivery. Wagner credited SCTR's comprehensive support as instrumental to the study's success.

"Without SCTR, we as a team would never have been able to accomplish what we did. It's a phenomenal infrastructure and an incredible gift to any researcher."

While the team has not yet established a definitive causal relationship, the findings add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that optimizing a patient's vitamin D status before and during pregnancy may improve both maternal and fetal health outcomes.

Vitamin D is a vital nutrient known primarily for helping the body absorb calcium and maintain normal bone, muscle, nerve and immune health. But as Wagner and fellow MUSC basic and translational scientist Bruce W. Hollis, Ph.D., discovered in earlier randomized controlled trials, vitamin D acts as a building block for hormones that play an important role in pregnancy.

Poor sleep is known to lead to poor diet quality. But as a new Concordia-led study of cohabiting couples shows, poor sleep can affect not only an individual's food choices but also their partner's choices. Because couples who sleep together often eat together, one partner's unhealthy food choices can have a ripple effect on the other's eating habits, the researchers say.

by Patrick Lejtenyi, Concordia University

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The study, published in the journal Annals of Behavioural Medicine , found that poor sleep was linked to a reduced ability to stick to healthy eating goals. People who slept poorly reported making less effort to eat well and feeling less confident in their ability to maintain healthy eating habits. Partners who slept well reported similar effects.

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Cancer rates are rising in adults under 55, and new research suggests accelerated biological aging may be one piece of the puzzle. Scientists found that people from more recent generations tended to have bodies that appeared biologically older than those of earlier generations at the same chronological age. Greater biological age acceleration was linked to a higher risk of early onset cancers, with specific patterns seen for lung, gastrointestinal, uterine and colorectal cancers.

Younger generations may be biologically aging faster, and that hidden acceleration could be contributing to the rise in early onset cancer.

Cancer is strongly associated with age. The longer people live, the more opportunities their cells have to accumulate damage that can contribute to tumor growth. But cancer is increasingly being diagnosed in younger adults, and each newer generation appears to face a greater risk than the one before it.

That trend has prompted researchers to investigate a provocative possibility: Are younger generations accumulating biological damage more quickly, causing their bodies to age faster than expected?

A study led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis offers evidence that this may be happening. The team found signs that younger generations are aging more rapidly on a biological level than older generations did at comparable ages.

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A new perspective from LSU's Pennington Biomedical Research Center proposes a new way of understanding how dietary protein restriction may promote healthy aging and extend lifespan: through a coordinated physiological response that connects cellular nutrient sensing with hormones, the brain and changes throughout the body.

by Pennington Biomedical Research Center

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"Protein restriction and the hallmarks of aging: A coordinated physiological adaptive response?"—authored by Dr. Chris Morrison, Dr. Sora Kim and Dr. Sangho Yu of Pennington Biomedical—was recently published in the journal Cell Metabolism . The authors argue that the diverse effects of protein restriction, including changes in metabolism, glucose regulation, energy expenditure, growth and food preferences, should be viewed as interconnected components of a broader response to protein scarcity rather than as isolated biological pathways.

The perspective provides a framework for investigating how the body's response to protein scarcity may influence healthy aging and longevity and whether that response can be measured or ultimately targeted to improve health across the lifespan.

Long-lived bats appear to combine powerful immune defenses with unusual strategies for eliminating damaged cells, potentially helping them avoid cancer and disease for decades. Researchers hope these genetic tricks could eventually reveal new ways to protect human health during aging.

Long-lived bats may reveal genetic secrets for fighting cancer, resisting disease, and staying healthier for longer.

Some of the best clues to living a long, healthy life may be hidden in the DNA of bats, mammals that can survive for remarkably long periods relative to their body size.

The idea fascinated Juan Manuel Vazquez while he was a graduate student at the University of Chicago. At the time, however, there was little published genomic information about bats that could help answer questions about longevity. After becoming a UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow in 2020, he began searching across the Western U.S. for bat species that could provide tissue samples for DNA sequencing.

With help from Berkeley undergraduates, Vazquez traveled throughout the region, setting up mist nets over streams, ponds and rivers at night. The team captured bats, collected small biopsy samples and released the animals. Much of the work focused on the genus Myotis , which includes some species with exceptionally long lifespans. One Brandt's myotis, Myotis brandtii , was banded in Europe and then recaptured 50 years later.

Bat Genomes Reveal a Longevity Connection

In a new study published in Nature , Vazquez and his colleagues present the first analysis of eight Myotis genomes. Their results point to a strong connection between lifespan and immune function. The longer-lived bats had higher levels of genes associated with fighting cancer.

Semaglutide helped older healthy mice live longer while improving memory, muscle function, blood sugar control, and several biological signs of aging. Its effects went beyond those seen with calorie restriction, raising the possibility that GLP-1 drugs could tap into a separate biological pathway linked to longevity.

Semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, extended lifespan and reduced signs of aging in older healthy mice.

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley compared semaglutide directly with calorie restriction, one of the best-known interventions for extending lifespan in laboratory animals. The drug reproduced many of the anti-aging effects of eating less, but in several important areas, it appeared to go even further.

The findings raise an intriguing possibility: GLP-1 drugs may influence the aging process itself. Earlier animal studies have shown that these drugs can delay the onset of multiple age-related diseases. If semaglutide acts on biological mechanisms that drive aging, that could help explain why GLP-1 treatments have shown benefits across such a wide range of health conditions.

"Most chronic diseases are deeply rooted in the aging process. If GLP-1 agonists do indeed slow it down, then a wide range of clinical benefits is exactly what you'd expect to see," said Rafael de Cabo, Ph.D., a senior investigator at the NIH's National Institute on Aging (NIA), and author of a commentary on the new study.

To see what semaglutide could do when aging was already well underway, a research team led by Danica Chen, Ph.D., gave the drug to 20-month-old female mice for three months.

Researchers at Texas A&M University's Naresh K. Vashisht College of Medicine have identified time-specific patterns of brain activity following ketamine treatment in older adults with treatment-resistant depression.

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The findings, published in Translational Psychiatry , could help researchers identify potential biological markers associated with ketamine's antidepressant effects and better understand why patients respond differently to treatment.

Ketamine is increasingly used as a rapid-acting treatment for treatment-resistant depression , but its use in older adults has not been widely adopted because of concerns about safety and efficacy associated with aging pathology. To address these questions, the Experimental Psychopharmacology of Mood and Anxiety Disorders Lab (EPMAD Lab) at Texas A&M, led by Dr. Sanjay Mathew, professor and head of psychiatry, has been studying how the brain responds to ketamine in U.S. veterans older than 55.

Dr. Nicholas Murphy, research associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Texas A&M, coordinates the neuroscience-informed treatments wing of the EPMAD Lab. He compares ketamine's effects to opening a floodgate: The drug allows communication to flow through the brain, leading to enhanced flexibility. Murphy suggested patients' clinical response to ketamine is tied more closely to the brain's malleability than to the size of its initial response.

Every one of 212 plant-based meat alternatives and drinks tested in the UK contained at least one naturally occurring fungal toxin, though concentrations remained below recommended EU guideline levels. Researchers say the bigger question is whether regularly eating large amounts of these foods could lead to potentially concerning cumulative exposure over time.

Hundreds of popular vegan and vegetarian foods may contain an unwanted extra ingredient: toxins naturally produced by fungi.

A large survey of plant-based foods and beverages sold in the UK has found that mycotoxins, toxic compounds naturally produced by fungi, are widespread across vegetarian and vegan products.

Researchers analyzed 212 plant-based meat alternatives (PMBAs) and plant-based beverages (PBBs) purchased from UK stores. Every product tested contained at least one of 19 mycotoxins, and some contained several.

The study was led by the University of Parma in Italy and coauthored by Cranfield University. Researchers examined a wide range of products commonly available to UK shoppers, including burgers, vegetarian chicken pieces, vegan sausages, and oat, almond and soy-based milks.

Why Mycotoxins Appear in Plant-Based Foods

Mycotoxins can be especially common in plant-based products because many of their ingredients, including grains, legumes and seeds, may be exposed to mould while they are being grown or stored.

Exercise does more than keep our minds and bodies healthy. It also protects us against the effects of aging. Scientists have developed self-contracting mini-muscle implants that grow their own blood supply and mimic the biological benefits of exercise, giving people unable to work out because of physical limitations a way to reap the same rewards.

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Skeletal muscles do more than stabilize joints and power movement. They also act as an endocrine organ , releasing hundreds of chemical messengers that travel through the body and help protect other organs when we exercise. To harness this function, researchers turned a tiny muscle sample from a mouse's thigh into a living graft, grew it in the lab and injected it under the skin on the mice's backs. The cells developed their own blood vessels and formed muscle grafts that remained at the injection site.

Once implanted in elderly and obese mice, these grafts countered age-related muscle wasting. The mice developed thicker natural leg muscles, lost less muscle and showed improved strength and reduced inflammation.

The grafts could also serve as a flexible delivery system for hormones. When engineered to produce parathyroid hormone, they restored normal levels in mice with simulated hypoparathyroidism. In contrast, versions producing growth hormone caused mice to gain weight significantly faster and grow significantly longer. The findings are published in Nature Aging .

Shingles is a painful and serious condition affecting many older people. It is caused by the herpes zoster virus, which can flare up in people who previously had chickenpox. A vaccine against shingles (Zostavax) was introduced in 2006. In many countries, including the U.K. and U.S., Zostavax has now been withdrawn and replaced by a much more effective recombinant vaccine (Shingrix). In the U.K., Shingrix is being offered by the NHS to all older people and certain other groups.

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Several studies have suggested that vaccinated people may have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. However, these studies compared vaccinated and unvaccinated people, and their conclusions may therefore be biased because people who choose to be vaccinated differ from those who don't.

For a new study, published in Nature Medicine , researchers at the University of Oxford and NIHR BRC: Oxford Health used the U.S. TriNetX electronic health records network. In the U.S., there was a switchover between Zostavax and Shingrix in October 2017. This allowed the researchers to compare the risk of cardiovascular events over the following seven years in adults ages 60 and older who were vaccinated with Shingrix with otherwise similar people who had received Zostavax. More than 36,000 people, matched for their characteristics, were in each group.

Shingrix was associated with a 9% lower overall burden of cardiovascular disease than Zostavax, including a 10% reduction in ischemic heart disease and a 12% reduction in heart failure. Men who received Shingrix also had a 12% lower risk of stroke, and there was a 7% reduction in atrial fibrillation (irregular heart rhythm). The beneficial effects were present in both sexes and were strongest in the years soon after vaccination.

Precancerous blood cells can actively reshape their surroundings, prematurely aging cells in the bone marrow to create conditions that favor their own growth and potentially increase the risk of blood cancer, according to a new study by researchers at The Jackson Laboratory (JAX).

by Roberto Molar Candanosa, Jackson Laboratory

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The findings challenge long-held assumptions about aging and how precancerous cells expand, and point toward a future strategy for cancer interception: targeting the aging bone marrow environment to help slow or prevent blood cancers before they arise.

The study, which used mouse models and human samples, appears in Nature Cell Biology . It also shows that these aging cells can accumulate faster than normal, leading to far more of them than would be expected for a person's age.

"We usually think of these senescent or aging cells as something that just accumulates with chronological age," said study author Jennifer Trowbridge, JAX professor and Dattels Family Chair. "What we've shown here is the first example that clonal hematopoiesis can actually accelerate that process. It creates senescent cells in the bone marrow environment faster than you'd expect for someone's age."