A team of local scientists says it has discovered a subset of cells that play a key role in the aging process.

The team comprising researchers from the Ajou University Medical Center said it found such cells in "an intermediate stage of the cellular senescence process within the tissue that are neither youthful nor senescent, naming them “mid-old cells.” 

The team assessed that such cells “significantly impact and ultimately lead to organic dysfunction in the elderly.” 

They found that “the functional decline of mid-old cells could be reversed by a young cell-originated protein, SLIT2.”

The team said its data had identified “functional reversion of mid-old cells as a potential method to prevent or ameliorate aspects of aging-related tissue dysfunction.”

The researchers' latest study was published on the online edition of the scientific journal, “Nature Communications.”