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Swiss researchers discover why our organs age

Swiss researchers want to slow down ageing processes
Swiss researchers want to slow down ageing processes Keystone-SDA

Swiss researchers have discovered why certain organs age faster than others. The results were published on Tuesday in the scientific journal Cell. The researchers hope to use their findings to slow down the ageing process.

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According to the studyExternal link by researchers from the Universities of Geneva and Bern and the Inselspital, the reason for the different rate of ageing is that error control is not carried out equally in all cells.

According to the researchers, certain areas of DNA in cells that divide infrequently, such as liver cells, are rarely checked for errors. As a result, hidden DNA defects can accumulate, which ultimately lead to the ageing of the organs. Cells in organs such as the skin divide more quickly and are therefore examined more frequently for defects.

+ Swiss people only feel old after the age of 80

The researchers now want to use these findings in order to investigate how certain aspects of ageing can be prevented, as the universities involved wrote in a press release.

Translated from German by DeepL/jdp

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