a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by mk
mk  ·  2813 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Show Hubski: Forever Labs

Yes, they do. They decrease in both number and in function (as measured by their ability to divide, and form new tissue, such as bone). Here are some various references:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26088863

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24607555

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25634304

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25096220

So when you are most likely to suffer from diseases these cells might treat, your own cells have loss much of their therapeutic potential.

One study that I found particularly interesting was that the number of circulating progenitor cells (cells expressing a stem cell marker) in octogenarians was predictive of longevity:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22449458