Immune-mediated longevity

Longevity The naked mole-rat is a fascinating example of an animal with an extended lifespan relative to its body size. Hilton et al. investigated whether there are distinct attributes of the immune system of this social rodent that could account for their healthful aging. They mapped the immune system of naked mole-rats using single-cell RNA sequencing and found a high ratio of myeloid cells to lymphoid cells compared with the immune system of short-lived mice. They also identified a previously undescribed subset of granulocyte cells and found that naked mole-rats lack natural killer cells. Perhaps this altered immune cell composition helps prevent aging-associated disease, including cancer, which allows naked mole-rats to live for such a long time. PLOS Biol. 17 , e3000528 (2019).