Stem cells provide a potent treatment for frailty

Nature News · Feb 25, 2026 · Collected from RSS

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A single dose of stem cells can help older people with frailty to build up their endurance, a study finds1. The study’s authors say that the results offer the strongest evidence to date for an effective treatment for frailty, which affects as many as one-quarter of people aged 50 or older2.“For the first time, you have a treatment that targets accelerated ageing,” which can manifest as frailty, says Jorge Ruiz, a study author and geriatrician at Memorial Healthcare System in Hollywood, Florida.Debilitating conditionThere is no single accepted definition of frailty. But researchers generally agree that people with the condition have lower physical endurance and a higher risk of dying compared with others of the same age. They also take longer to recover from events such as a fall.Because frailty describes a set of physical symptoms that do not share a single molecular cause, relatively few research groups have tried to develop treatments specific to the condition.How fast are you ageing? Ordinary brain scans reveal the paceJoshua Hare, chief science officer of Longeveron in Miami, Florida, which is developing the therapy, and his colleagues decided to address frailty using mesenchymal stem cells, which are found in tissues such as bone marrow and fat. The cells can differentiate into a wide variety of tissue types, including bone, cartilage and muscle, and release anti-inflammatory signalling molecules.Adding to their promise, the cells have few of the surface proteins that would usually trigger a reaction by a recipient’s immune system. This means that people infused with these cells don’t need to take immunosuppressive medications that could lead to fatal infections in people who are already frail.Power walkThe authors collected stem cells from donated bone marrow and grew them in the laboratory. They administered one of four doses of stem cells to 118 participants and a placebo to 30. All participants were between 70 and 85 years old and had frailty, although all could walk.Nine months after treatment, those who had received the highest dose of stem cells walked about 60 metres farther, on average, in a six-minute walk test than they had before receiving the therapy — about a 20% improvement.What’s the secret to living to 100? Centenarian stem cells could offer clues