(ORDO NEWS) — It is logical to think that since we are born with a full set of organs, then each of them will have the same age – they will all be the same age as we are. However, scientists believe that our body is not so simple, and some vital systems may be a little older.
Can the biological age of your liver be different from the age of your cardiovascular system?
No matter how strange it may sound, but yes, your internal organs can have different biological ages. And analysis of hundreds of biological features of different organisms confirms that some organs and life support systems can age faster than others.
Tracking the biological age of various parts of the body can help doctors more accurately predict the development of various diseases.
Science has long known that the specific state of the cells in the body can be interpreted as their biological age, which may be different from your actual age – the number of years you have lived. This means that, depending on genetic factors and lifestyle, the cells of some of your organs may age faster or slower.
Now, new evidence has emerged of the veracity of this scientific hypothesis – the results of a study by scientists from the National University of Singapore and their colleagues from China showed that various organs and systems of the body, such as the cardiovascular or immune system, can age at different rates in one and the same person.
“This confirms the results of previous studies that there are different rates of aging of organs and systems, and the patterns of aging in people are different,” says Wenyu Zhou of biotech company Tempus Labs in California. “It also requires personalized health assessments that will comprehensively analyze the various aging processes.”
How the study was conducted
During the study, scientists collected blood and stool samples from approximately 480 people aged 20 to 45 years old – with their help, specialists were able to analyze a total of 403 biological characteristics of each person.
The team further divided these biomarkers into nine categories to assess the biological age of the kidney, liver, gut microbiome, cardiovascular system, immune system, metabolic system, and sex hormone system. The team also estimated biological age using fitness tests and analyzing photographs of the participants’ faces.
Results: Do Organs Really Have Different Ages?
The results showed that of the nine systems and organs assessed, the biological age of the human cardiovascular system most closely matched the actual age of the people.
But the gut microbiome showed the weakest relationship with real age. Meanwhile, the biological age of the liver and systems of sex hormones could change in different people. Overall, these data confirmed that different parts of the body have different biological ages.
The team also found that the biological age of the liver can be used to predict the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, which is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes. This means that tracking the biological age of individual organs can help predict the risk of disease in those areas.
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