The Stiffening Trap: How Aging Tissues Strangle Their Own Blood Supply (opens in new tab)

A group of NIH gerontologists propose that aging is driven by a self-feeding vicious circle in which a hardening extracellular matrix chokes off blood flow, starving mitochondria of oxygen, which in turn produces more cellular damage that hardens the matrix further. They argue this single loop could be a unified target for anti-aging therapy. Why do tissues fail as we age? The dominant story has been about inflammation, senescent “zombie” cells, and worn-out mitochondria — each treated as a s...