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Researchers reported that autophagy, the cellular process that recycles damaged material, does not follow one universal pattern as people age. In a study of blood, skin and induced neuron-like cells from healthy adults, changes varied by cell type and sex; among participants aged 70 and older, higher activity was associated with poorer measures of physical function.
Autophagy, the cell’s system for breaking down and reusing damaged material, does not simply decline with age, according to research published September 27, 2026, in Aging Cell. Researchers at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute found that its activity could rise, fall or remain stable depending on the cell type and participants’ sex, complicating efforts to treat the process as a general measure of aging.
The team studied blood and skin samples from volunteers aged 23 to 72 who reported having no chronic medical conditions. Researchers also turned some skin cells into induced neurons, allowing them to examine autophagy in three cell types. They analyzed RNA transcripts linked to autophagy and directly measured cellular recycling activity rather than relying on gene activity alone.
The patterns differed across the samples. In men’s skin cells, autophagy activity decreased with age, while it remained relatively stable in women’s skin cells. In induced neurons derived from women, activity increased with age. The study also found that levels of autophagy-related gene expression did not reliably show how much recycling was taking place.
Among participants aged 70 and older, higher autophagy activity was associated with poorer measures of physical function across the three cell types. In blood cells, it was linked to lower aerobic fitness; in skin cells, to higher body mass index; and in induced neurons, to weaker grip strength, lower metabolism and a higher resting heart rate. These are reported associations, not proof that autophagy caused the differences.
Why One Aging Measure Falls Short
The results matter because autophagy is being investigated as a possible target for healthy-aging interventions. If its activity changes differently across tissues and according to sex, a single reading may not describe what is happening throughout a person’s body. The study also cautions against treating increased activity as automatically beneficial: among the oldest participants, higher measured activity coincided with less favorable physical-function measures.
The findings do not establish that increasing or reducing autophagy would improve health. Rather, they point to the need for research that distinguishes cell type, age and sex, and that measures the recycling process directly. That distinction could affect how future studies assess potential treatments and interpret cellular markers.
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How Researchers Tested Cell Recycling
Autophagy collects damaged proteins and other cellular waste, encloses the material in specialized compartments and breaks it down into components that cells can reuse. The process helps limit the buildup of cellular damage. Declining autophagy has often been described as a feature of aging, and disruptions have been linked to conditions including cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and neurodegenerative disorders.
However, the study’s authors said evidence for a simple decline in autophagy in healthy humans is limited. The research addressed that question by combining gene-transcript analysis with direct measurements of autophagy activity in three types of cells. The report says the team also explored physical activity and its possible influence on autophagy, but the supplied findings do not provide results from that part of the work.
““We found that autophagic activity changes were not universal throughout the body and did not follow the idea that autophagy simply declines with age.””
— Caroline Kumsta, senior and corresponding author and assistant professor at Sanford Burnham Prebys
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Limits of the Current Findings
The study included volunteers aged 23 to 72, while the reported links between higher autophagy and poorer physical-function measures applied to participants aged 70 and older. The supplied report does not give the sample size, the strength of the associations or details on how representative the volunteers were. Participants reported no chronic medical conditions, so the findings do not establish patterns in people with those conditions.
The reported associations do not show whether higher autophagy contributed to poorer function, whether poorer health affected autophagy, or whether other factors influenced both. The report also mentions an investigation of exercise but does not provide its results, so it is not clear whether exercise changed autophagy in this study. Further research is needed to test whether the patterns hold in larger groups and across other tissues.
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Questions for Follow-Up Studies
The researchers say future work needs to examine autophagy at a cell-specific level and account for age and sex. Studies could test whether the observed patterns recur in larger and more varied groups, and whether direct activity measurements provide more useful information than gene-expression measures alone.
The team also examined whether physical activity might influence cellular recycling, but the available report does not state what that analysis found. No intervention or clinical benefit is established by the findings described here. Until further results are available, the central next step is to determine how the associations work and whether they can inform safe, effective approaches to healthy aging.
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Key Questions
What is autophagy?
Autophagy is a cellular process that breaks down damaged proteins and other material, allowing cells to reuse their components.
Did the study find that autophagy always declines with age?
No. The researchers found that activity decreased, increased or stayed relatively stable, depending on the cell type and sex.
Does higher autophagy mean poorer health?
The study does not establish that. Among participants aged 70 and older, higher activity was associated with some less favorable physical-function measures, but the findings do not show that autophagy caused them.
Did the researchers find that exercise changes autophagy?
The report says the researchers investigated possible effects of physical activity, but the supplied findings do not describe the results. Any effect remains unclear from this report.
Could these findings lead to an aging treatment?
The study does not test a treatment or show a clinical benefit. Its findings suggest that future research should account for cell type, age and sex when studying autophagy as a possible intervention target.
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